To begin the new year, still some old work with some more holes in the panel. First I make a template to drill the holes for the mounting screws of the round instruments, it takes much longer than expected to get it right.
Then it's only a matter of minutes to align everythins and drill the holes. They are still small diameter, final drilling will be done later.



Then I drill the holes for the angle of attack display.



And finally the holes for the intercom and the standby compass.

Still drilling holes in the panel. First the center stack with the Garmin 496 support anf the EIS 4000.



Same picture with instruments installed.



I then dril the holes for the support rib and draw the ouline of the hole for the left side EFIS. But before drilling that I decide to drill the round holes for the instruments going beow the EFIS. I first drill 3/4" holes with the step drill bit.



I the use a punch to make perfect holes in less time that it takes to describe the process.



And here the result swith the standby airspeed indicator. The hole to the right od the center hole is normally the one for the left support rib. I will fill it before final paint.



And then I drill the EFIS hole. I'm not done yet as I still have to drill for the trim indicators, the compass, the intercomm, the park brake and various lights and switches.

Today I made the big hole for the right side EFIS and for the VHF and transponder. With yesterday's experience, I could cut nearer to the final line with the jigsaw.
This is the first cut.



After filing the upper and the top of the side edges, the EFIS was slided into postion.



And a picture with everything in place after the filing of the lower edges.

It's high time I begun drilling the panel. I decide to begin with the mapbox. I used a method described in the 5th 2008 Rvator, Vans's news letter that can be downloaded here.
The first cut is done using a jigsaw.



I needed almost two hours to file the opening to the correct size.



After the hinges are riveted I make some small adjustments.



This is the door in the open position, I still have to install some kind of lock.

Today's goal was to see how the panel fits in the cockpit with all the ribas and angles.
The picture show the back of the panel with the rib, the trays and one support angle. The angle had to be sanded slightly to fit in between.



The panel in the fuselage. The left rib has been displaced from it's intended position under the white block toward the center.
I also found out that the subpanel is 1/2' shorter than the panel itself. As my radio sit very low on the main panel, they will protrude somewhat from the bottom of the subpanel.



I cut some aluminium angle to make the support for the trays on the subpanel. There are two side supports and one lower support. I'll see how this gets installed once the panel has been cut.



After having installed the panel ribs, I noticed this crack on the right rib. I have some difficulties knowing when this happened perphaps during the multiple installations or may be during canopy work. Vans would probably say that it's OK to repair it but I will order a new one.



I also fabricated the support angles for the GPS bracket.