PanelFrame

Panel Frame

I chose to replace the stock Van's instrument panel with a modular, removable panel from Affordable Panels. This, I hope, will mitigate the difficulty of maintaining the stuff behind the panel. It's one of the disadvantages of the sliding canopy choice...it makes it hard to access behind the panel. The Affordable Panels product allows me to remove one section at a time, if I wire it with the appropriate service loops and disconnects. Once the forward fuselage was riveted in place, this was a logical first step. I had mocked up a bunch of stuff before reaching this stage, and realized that I was in for a lot of backpedalling if I didn't make it permanent. As it is, I had to remove a ton of heating & cooling stuff, actuation cables, etc. that were in there temporarily.

The Affordable Panels frame is very flexible, until you rivet on an aluminum angle along the bottom edge. You have to get it in place while it's flexible, and once you rivet on the angle, it's there for life. If you're less lazy than me, and want to be able to remove it someday, you can use nuplates and screws to attach the angle...but I hate nutplates.

Again, you can rivet it or you can screw it, but I used a (rather large) rivet.

The upper edge is now riveted in place.

This is where my own brilliance slows down progress. I am not using the stock eyeball vent locations. If I were, this little arch would go all 360 deg around the vent, and I'd have a place to rivet the frame to the fuselage. That little bracket is supposed to attach to the fuselage in four places, and to the frame in ...more than one. However, I am installing the eyeball vents in my clever little angled panels, so the hose has to come though here, so I had to cut off a lot of the frame. That big black cleco is the sole surviving attachment.

This is what it looks like behind my panel for now.

On the left side, there is a hinged shelf that holds the Main and Hot Battery Bus fuse blocks. In keeping with the Book of Bob, these are the actual busses. One big wire goes in, lots of little wires go out. A big reason to rivet all this stuff on for good was to start running wires. Some of them go through the subpanel, thus making the structural parts permanent.

My little angled panels can now be attached a bit more securely, too. They are screwed into the fuselage skin, and to the angle on the bottom edge of the panel frame.

My passenger gets one too, of course.

Yes, I know it's silly turd-polishing, but I like them!

This little bracket attaches the outboard edge of the frame to the canopy rail.

Then, of course, I couldn't resist installing the panels temporarily so I could make airplane noises and tape on a paper drawing of my panel. Now that I know how much space is avaible behind the panel, and where, I can be a bit more realistic...money aside, of course.

I also moved my static line to were everybody else puts it, under the canopy rail. There was too much crap in the tunnel, and too much stuff trying to go through the feedthroughs in the spar web. And the community may have it right...it is less likely to accumulate moisture if it's not the lowest point in the airplane!

The Affordable Panels frame is very flexible, until you rivet on an aluminum angle along the bottom edge. You have to get it in place while it's flexible, and once you rivet on the angle, it's there for life. If you're less lazy than me, and want to be able to remove it someday, you can use nuplates and screws to attach the angle...but I hate nutplates.	Again, you can rivet it or you can screw it, but I used a (rather large) rivet.
	The upper edge is now riveted in place.
This is where my own brilliance slows down progress. I am not using the stock eyeball vent locations. If I were, this little arch would go all 360 deg around the vent, and I'd have a place to rivet the frame to the fuselage. That little bracket is supposed to attach to the fuselage in four places, and to the frame in ...more than one. However, I am installing the eyeball vents in my clever little angled panels, so the hose has to come though here, so I had to cut off a lot of the frame. That big black cleco is the sole surviving attachment.	This is what it looks like behind my panel for now.
On the left side, there is a hinged shelf that holds the Main and Hot Battery Bus fuse blocks. In keeping with the Book of Bob, these are the actual busses. One big wire goes in, lots of little wires go out. A big reason to rivet all this stuff on for good was to start running wires. Some of them go through the subpanel, thus making the structural parts permanent.	My little angled panels can now be attached a bit more securely, too. They are screwed into the fuselage skin, and to the angle on the bottom edge of the panel frame.
My passenger gets one too, of course.	Yes, I know it's silly turd-polishing, but I like them!
This little bracket attaches the outboard edge of the frame to the canopy rail.	Then, of course, I couldn't resist installing the panels temporarily so I could make airplane noises and tape on a paper drawing of my panel. Now that I know how much space is avaible behind the panel, and where, I can be a bit more realistic...money aside, of course.
I also moved my static line to were everybody else puts it, under the canopy rail. There was too much crap in the tunnel, and too much stuff trying to go through the feedthroughs in the spar web. And the community may have it right...it is less likely to accumulate moisture if it's not the lowest point in the airplane!