| day |
notes |
hours |
| 3 |
Visit Roger Huttlestone and his brother at Northwick Manufacturing to see progress on the trailer, and make a decision on the type of front end. Decide to have standard front end, not the shorter one, as neither version would make the trailer short enough to fit between the shed and the side gates, and the shorter one is tighter to fit tailplanes etc into. Order spare wheel. Part-finished trailer should be ready for collection in a week or so. They will loan air-powered rivet gun and underseal gun, so send e-mail to Tim Houlihan enquiring about loan of Roger Lloyd's compressor which Tim is using at present for paint spraying. |
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| 6 |
Install small AC hour-meter in steel box with illuminated switch and reset protection. Mount on garage wall near door, for logging building hours. |
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| 7 |
Tim replies to e-mail saying he thinks there should not be a problem with me using the compressor for a while. |
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| 17 |
Receive final invoice from Roger Huttlestone for trailer and spare wheel. Order cheque to cover it. Send e-mail to Roger enquiring about best time to collect. |
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| 19 |
Cheque for trailer arrives. Post it to Roger Huttlestone. Visit David Corbett at Shobdon for lunch and a look around his Europa workshop. Borrow several jigs and fixtures and some photos to illustrate their use. |
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| 19 |
Read Duncan McFadyean's comment on the Europa e-mail list that he has a resin pump surplus to requirements. Decide to bid for it and e-mail for more details. |
|
| 20 |
Roger Huttlestone phones to suggest I do the assembly of the tricky bits (the main cladding sheet and the nose cladding) at their workshop, rather than bringing it home unclad and them coming over to help later. We agree to attempt that on Wednesday 24 November. |
|
| 23 |
Conclude resin pump negotiations with Duncan McFadyean. He agrees to accept £200 inclusive, and will be in the Evesham area with his Europa this coming weekend, so can deliver. |
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| 24 |
To Northwick Business Park, near Blockley, Moreton-in-Marsh. Spend day with Roger & Tony Huttlestone assembling the superstructure of my Europa trailer. Unroll huge sheet of gel-coated glassfibre and re-roll at right angles to get correct orientation for fitting. Fit 6 glassfibre hoops to chassis with single rivets. Drag cover sheet over them. Strap down tightly to close onto hoops. Secure cover to chassis along bottom outside edges with rivets through aluminium strips. Unrivet bottom of hoops on one side and pack up to get even tighter fit. Secure all hoops with 3 rivets total each side and attach edges of hoops to cover sheet with silicon rubber mastic. Offer up and fettle front moulding for fit. Glass-in nose cone and outer edge of tail (door frame) hoop. As I forgot to bring a trailer board, decide to leave it all to set overnight and collect it tomorrow after a little bit more work. Bring home various smaller parts — mudguards, brake cables, tail supports, winch, door seal strip etc. |
|
| 25 |
Buy trailer board and extension cable at Halfords (£34.98). Return to Northwick Manufacturing and cut holes in nose moulding to re-fit drawbar. Fit trailer board & wire up. Tie down plywood, door, rails and other long parts to trailer chassis. Load timber for noggins, air rivet gun, air underseal gun, small fittings and fasteners in car. Still outstanding are the fuselage dolly, wing supports, and spare wheel, plus various supplies such as resin for further work on door frame. Manhandle trailer out of workshop and couple up. Drive home rather carefully. At Broadway, decide to avoid Winchcombe's narrow streets and take road for Evesham (forgetting that it would have been shorter to join the Evesham Road from Toddington). Arrive home safely, but find width of circular drive too small to draw coupled trailer round without it cutting across centre grass. Wilma can't stop saying "It's enormous!" Uncouple and spend some time manhandling trailer around so drawbar is towards road. Re-couple and reverse into side gate without too much trouble, but it's very tight once inside. Will need to move shed to allow room to pass beside trailer with lawnmower, wheelie-bin, etc. That would also allow trailer to stay roughly parallel with garden wall rather than house wall, which should make entry and exit easier.
Phone Roger Lloyd to ask about using his air compressor. He says he is expecting to need it back in a week or so. Leave a message to that effect with Anne for Tim. Looks like I won't be able to use it, as I won't be ready to rivet the floor for some time yet (want to do brakes and wiring first, I think). |
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| 26 |
Drive to roundabout at south end of Evesham bypass to meet Duncan McFadyean, collect resin pump and pay the agreed £200 for it. It is a Michael Engineering Sticky-Stuff Adjustable serial ADJ364 built July 1994.
Try squeezing one 5mm rivet with the Stanley MR99 rivet pliers. Possible, but quite heavy going. Would not want to do that more than a few times. Would a lazy-tong riveter be a suitable compromise if I can't get a compressor? |
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