Anyway, a day later, this happened:
Must have slipped.
Old 5-piece rivetted and glued roofskin is now a lighter welded single piece effort. Much cursing and hammering was heard in the process. Sounded easier than it was, ripples all over the place to start with.
Engine went back together:
Some of the bodywork got finished off:
Had a play around in Paint to see what colour scheme to go with, got this far, open to suggestions though:
And started making louvers.....may have gone overkill...
Skidpan's - 6mm thick aluminium plate for the transmission - goes forward under the beam tube/seats and is overlapped by the main floor for a while so it's even thicker there. The transmission plate also overlaps the engine plate when that is fitted so there's no leading edges anywhere to dig in. Front of the floor and the front beam get their own section that curls upwards to stop it digging in on nose-heavy landings and also acts a front splitter for high speed stuff.
Have to excuse the rear edge of the floor, mate lent a helping hand an thought a hammer was a more appropriate bending too than the folder in the corner.....I'm all for hammers but not the way he uses one
Couldn't afford a CAT scan to check the discs for flaws, so went for the cheaper alternative:
He said they were a bit Ruff.
Going back in time a little - rerouted some piping before Christmas, along with some other changes the eagle eyed might notice - basically the hoses were a little close to hot spots for comfort, even with heat shielding, mainly because they'd been made few mm long by the supplier but with such short, wide hoses getting rid of the extra length meant routing at quite an angle into some of the fittings, and it also meant the dry sump belt was difficult to access - not something you want in the field!
Anyway, chances are the hoses would have been fine but after this amount of time an oil fire is not the way you wish to discover that they weren't...
Anyway, that knocked on to shifting a few bits and pieces (exhaust relocated by removing the right rear frame support tube, and shuffling of the oil filter mainly - although then I decided I didn't like it anyway, so then it got moved again to completely under the engine now there's room due to the exhaust shift) and then it meant remaking panels that were already done:
Welded up awaiting the top rolling over the tube:
This was probably posted after finding some decent whisky in the back of a cupboard:
Today we see the lesser spotted Hermit Filter in it's natural location. Generally shy and lacking in mobility, this little fella finds a nearby engine and ducks underneath, using the sump for protection. Upon finding this safe location, he quickly hooks into the oil lines and then filter feeds on debris and dirt in the oil, providing a beautiful symbiotic relationship that helps the engine live longer.
That cute blue exterior hides some defences though - attempting to remove a Hermit Filter - even one that has only lightly screwed itself to it's new perch - often requires the services of Popeye (or alternatively the Left Hand of God, if he's around at the time) and unfortunately the trouble doesn't stop there.
After freeing the grip of the tenacious Hermit Filter, it borrows a trick from the aquatic world and aims a stream of hot, black oil at your hands, eyes, the floor, the walls and, for some inexplicable reason, the cream living room carpet.
Even if you've removed it in the garage, 10 miles away from home.
It's an incredible defence mechanism really.
And some more louverly* new vents.
*See what I did there, eh? Terrible wasn't it? I make no apologies for that joke. You've read it now. Tough.
edit: Picture links fixed, click for full size.
