Stuff Ups

I could certainly re-do the whole build a lot quicker were I to do it again. These are things I wish I had done first time

  • Fully protect the wings against scratching right at the start – they are very easy to damage
  • Do a proper inventory check at the very start and get any missing bits ordered from the factory. Its not an easy job as things are difficult to identify (many are unlabelled) and ultimately, it was a process of elimination to work out where some things were meant to go. And there wasnt a proper parts list I could check (there was a list but nobody seemed to have ticked off what was packed at the factory and what was missing).
  • Tape over the imperial scale on the torque wrench to avoid missreading it
  • Be aware of what fixings are already on the engine assembly
  • The wiring for the indicators under the front wings is messy. The lead, as supplied, for the earth is too long and shortening it would make for a much cleaner install, avoiding the need to loop wires. If the cables are not looped under the wing, it would give a bit longer live wire to connect to the wiring in the engine compartment (it was only just long enough).
  • Put on the helicopter tape on the bodywork around the upper front suspension fixings right at the start
  • Be more brutal with the bodywork around the front suspension (pushing it inwards) to allow access to the front suspsension fixings.
  • make sure that the rear wing protectors are very carefully held in place before drilling and that they dont subsequently move.
  • have ‘a system’ for marking positions on nuts (it seems good practice to mark a nut once it if fully torqued so that you can easily see if it has moved). With hindsight, I should have decided to do them all either front-back or up-down rather than mark the nut and the surrounding surface.

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