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With a long wait for the avionics kit, I'm puttering around redoing stuff I wasn't all that happy with the first time around.

I had used EZ Turn on the fittings into the fuel tank and although there was a time when that was acceptable practice, Van's now says don't use Fuel Lube and EZ Turn is pretty much fuel lube. So I removed the fuel tank and cleaned the outside of that up and polished it a bit, then removed the two fittings and cleaned them, and reinstalled them using Permatex 2.

Unfortunately when I was torquing the fuel line, I put a gash in the line. So I removed it. I'm not sure how I put that initial bend in the line, given that it starts 21/32" from a flared end, but it sure wasn't with a tubing bender. The Van's instructions says to flare the tank end, then bend, then insert the sleeve and nut from the end. Nope, that doesn't work. A sleeve will never fit over a 38 degree bend.

I'm guessing I flared and put the sleeve and nut on, then used spring benders, holding the tank end in place, probably in a vice. We'll see. I had to order new tubing.

I also removed 8 nutplates I'd installed in the lower instrument panel frame. At the time, I'd intended to install a single Garmin screen and the instructions say not to put the nutplates in if you're using a second screen. My mother's estate was settled and I got a very small check, just enough to add the second screen. So I removed the nutplates.

Some aluminum material arrived so I made a new inspection cover for the fuel quickdrain and match drilled the holes, installed the nutplates and called it a day on that lingering project.

And the cotter pin arrived so I could install it in the castle nut on the passenger side heater flap. I'm not sure I got the set screw tight enough so I'll recheck that.

There are a few other things I'd like to fix. One is a pop rivet that set wrong in one of the wings.

I'm generally thinking of going ahead and attaching the tail assembly to the mid fuselage, even though a few wires from the avionics need to be

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