Black Mirage Build Diary

[Sulley]

How are you routing your cooling lines?

[Manta22]

Sulley;

I had originally planned to route one line back through the right side of the cockpit but now I think I'll route both lines around the inside the left side pod. The right side pod contains my fuel cell so no lines can run through there but the left side pod has only two fire extinguishers hanging from the top cover so the two lines should fit OK.

[Manta22]

I was afraid that this might happen.

I searched the internet for a pull knob that would be suitable for my battery cut-off cable, a push- pull control cable with ends threaded 10-32. No luck, so I made one out of 1/2" 6061-T6 aluminum plate. Nothing fancy- I cut it out with a hacksaw, dressed it up on a belt sander and then tapped it 10-32. I had a can of self-etching primer so I tried that after soaking it in a phosphoric acid solution. The topcoat of red should make it visible to the emergency crew. I designed it so that it could be pulled by a person wearing gloves.

Regards, Neil Tucson, AZ

[Blueovalz]

1/2" with a hacksaw...I'm impressed, ahhh in the red handle I mean.

[Manta22]

1/2" with a hacksaw...I'm impressed, ahhh in the red handle I mean.

It is an Armstrong hacksaw, Terry.

[Manta22]

I placed my battery in the required box and padded it with slabs of polyethylene foam to cushion it from vibration. It is a closed-cell foam so it doesn't absorb liquid. I added a blue poly rope around the battery so I can use it as a grab handle to easily lift the battery out of its box. It is the biggest battery Costco had that would fit into this box.

The box is now placed into its fixture and clamped into place in the passenger's foot well. I still need to install a few more cover bolts.

Regards, Neil Tucson, AZ

[Sulley]

Battery box looks good.

[Manta22]

Today was a fairly productive day. I marked the access panel cut-out on the left fiberglass side pod cover with blue tape, removed it from the chassis and cut out the panel. I drilled two starting holes in the bottom side to insert a "body saw" (pneumatic HF tool) and cut two radiused corners and then realized that the blade was too dull to cut much more. A search turned up no spare blades so I switched to a fine-tooth (32 TPI) saber saw for the straight cuts. I had to revert to the body saw to cut the two other corners since the saber saw wouldn't turn a tight radius.

As I had it up on sawhorses anyway, I sanded the cut edges smooth and then fabricated a bottom air skirt for that side (driver's side) from 1" x 0.065" 7075-T6 aluminum angle. The pieces I had were all too short so I had to make it in two pieces with a splice panel made from the same stuff. It was necessary to trim both legs shorter and put a small radius on the outside edge so the splice would lay flat The angle is made with an inside radius, not a sharp edge. I'll shoot zinc chromate primer later when I do the skirt for the passenger side.

I'll post a few pictures of the skirt and how it will be fastened to the chassis. The fiberglass will be sandwiched between the skirt and the chassis brackets.

Next will be deciding on how I'll fasten the access panel to the side pod fiberglass. Among other things, this panel will allow inspectors to check the fire bottle certs, etc.

[Manta22]

The side pod fiberglass is not very thick so it is not very stiff along the long cut edges. To prevent oil canning at high speed I thought it would be prudent to stiffen those edges with some of the same 7075-T6 1"x1" 0.065 angle that I used to fabricate the side skirt. They are drilled now and Cleco'ed in place in this photo. I shot some primer on them so I'll need to wait until tomorrow to rivet them on. I left space on each end to install self- ejecting Dzus fasteners.

34 more holes drilled. When someone asks, I think I can say "I built the hole thing."

[Blueovalz]

Neil,

I've finally received a fire suppression system. Any suggestions on where to mount the nozzles? I know it sounds like an obvious question, but I've never had any experience with an AFFF system, and have no idea how far out the foam exits the nozzles, nor the impact of adding multiple nozzles to the efficacy of the system. I assume that with the 6 supplied nozzles, there is still sufficient flow through a small ~1/4" tube to ensure sufficient flow and pressure to all six simultaneously. Any suggestions or advice?

Terry