Finally I was able to finalize the canopy work. Disassembled it and stored it safely for future finishing.
I decided that the logical next step would be to put the plane on it's own legs. I had drilled the engine mount to the fuselage before so now the next step is to assemble wheels, legs, brakes, etc.
The first part can be done away from the fuselage. I just put the engine mount on some sawhorses and installed the legs in the tubes on the engine mount.
That sounds easier than it actually is. You will need to remove some excess powder coat from the legs and the inside of the tubes in order to be able to slide the legs in.
The bare metal will be greased on final installation to prevent corrosion.
In the image below, both gear legs are on the mount.
Looking at this, it makes me realise that I will need some way to lift the fuselage from the ground. I initially though of a table and some wood but than realised that I need to buy an engine mount crane soon and I could also use that now. So the solution is to buy the crane now and use it to hold the fuselage in the air when mounting the legs.
You will need to run a reamer through in order be able to run the bolt in. It looks a bit scary at first seeing only one bolt which is soo close to the top of that tube but in the end it's clear that this thing doesn't absorbe any excessive forces.
As last task of the day, I installed the U-403 brake mounting flange steel brackets. Here also, you run a reamer through in order to be able to install the 5/16-20 screw.
I ran the reamer all the way through and got a bit of play on the bracket. I'll evaluate later how bad this is and eventually weld the bracket to the axle.
