TLAC made a superb job of their oil access pop up on G-TLAC and I wasn’t convinced mine would look as neat and, having gone through the pain of over trimming one top cowl, I opted for a slightly different approach.

This involved drilling a pilot hole to check that I was directly over the top of the dip stick and then widen this to take account of the larger diameter alloy petrol cap.

The dremel came into its own as the hole was neatened to accept the fitting.

Although I knew the flat nature of the alloy cap would require a small amount of filler to make up the slope of the cowl it all turned out very well. The filler will be smoothed down to ensure a streamlined finish then paint with the top.

Made up a supporting alloy ring for the underside – The fitting comes with a cork ring but no metal backing as I guess it assumes you are fitting it to a car.

I now simply pull the flap, half turn and out pops the access. Simple and easy to get.

Completed the brackets and support bolts for this.

The bolts fitted are left over from the build but will be changed to slightly shorted ones and also will fit rivnuts as rear access (once covered) wont be quite so easy !

The shelf has been designed to be removable post build in case the tank needs to be removed but also to facilitate regular / scheduled maintenance. The idea being, that you simply remove the two leading bolts and the whole shelf tilts to allow ready access to all tubes, joints, breathers etc

The tank brackets supplied need to be mounted at opposing ends to ensure rigidity. These have pre drilled holes that match the presunken threads in the tank in various locations to provide a variety of securing options.

Looking at the location of the forward bracket I should still have ample room to secure a small alloy lip to allow the Two Trig base units (Radio and Transponder) to sit safely and with easy access behind the seat.

Completed the re-fit and re rig of the starboard wing. The cables had to be replaced so jigged on trestles and re-cut

Then down on the tail for some photos. We had a white back board and Sam was taking shadowless shots so that we can try to get the underlying framework put on a clear wrap to post add top the Oratex. That way you should be able to ‘see’ the lovely framework that would otherwise be lost under the fabric. Fingers crossed the idea works 🙂

Packed up the padding support (care of Williams F1 thanks 🙂

The metal plate you can just see bottom right is to stop large footed passengers kicking the fuel tap and sender at the bottom of the tank 🙂

And now secured with metal straps and self tappers.

Needing to get LAA 9G approval, I have added a very strong support bracket for the Oil tank shelf. The aim is for this shelf to act as a location for the remote Trig Radio and Transponder units.

The pipework, like all before is internally treated as well as cracking open my now very crusty Duralac

Easy to access via P1 seat

There was an option to have a remote smoke fill and, looking ahead to the fact that all this little fiddley bits need to be on before covering starts, I though I would get that remote fill option to save me slopping oil over the nice clean body.

The cap (like everything provided in the Smokinairplanes pack) is excellent and very robust. so made up a small ply bracket, polyurethane coat and drilled out ready for fitting.