My crowded shop..........                                                 

With the arrival of the wing kit, the lack of space has become critical.  The fuselage is on its side on the table, awaiting installation of the fuel lines

(not looking forward to fabricating the lines with all the exacting bends).  The parts from the wing kit are distributed about the shop, with the wing skins on a platform suspended directly above the car.  The stabilator is standing on its end leaning against the tail cone (not visible in this pic) between the car and the fuselage.  The plan is to move the tail cone and the stabilator to the attached garage and build the wings on the saw horses between the car and the fuselage.  It seems that most people build the two wings at the same time, and maybe the plans call for this, but clearly I don't have space.  One option would be to evict the car, but I can't bring myself to do that.  It has spent very few nights outside since I picked it up at the factory in Bowling Green.  The Spousal Unit (my beautiful and long-suffering wife, Karen) offered to relinquish her spot in the attached garage, but I know better than to accept that offer. 

The other slot in the attached garage is occupied by my antique, which I'm going to continue working on any day now (as I've been saying for several years -- I frequently ponder the phrase "too many irons in the fire").


Brake lines continued...                    

The forward ends of the brake lines require installation of the insert, sleeve and nut (see March 10 post) in the shop rather than in my kitchen, a result of having to thread the lines through the bulkhead grommets, which can only be done before the ends are installed.  The boiling water required for press fitting the insert into the line was accomplished with the rig shown.  A large Kronenbourg beer can, which for unknown reasons I had saved for the last 20 years, was cut in half and pressed into service as a pot (it was explained to me that the kitchen pots were not appropriate for this purpose).  I still had difficulty getting the inserts to press in all the way, even after coating them with dry Boelube.  I can't be the only builder with this problem, although I haven't heard anyone else complain about it.