Magnetometer bracket, FAB, and subpanel

I made a bracket for the Garmin magnetometer. Apparently you can purchase one for $75 or make it yourself. No surprise, the guy who makes his own plane will make a bracket. Like anything else, I screwed it up the first time.

It came out OK, but was too thin with 0.025 in aluminum sheet. So, I remade it with 0.040 in sheet. Also, this time I used a 2.5 in hole saw to make it appear a little more professional.

What's crazy is the G3X manual specifies that you have to "Align the GMU 22 mounting rack’s forward direction to within  0.5° of the longitudinal axis of the aircraft".

So, I tried to make it as square as possible.  0.5° is a pretty small tolerance, but I think I got it. Here's how it came out:

Next up was the forward airbox. Yes, I had been putting this off. Basically, I shifted to bottom plate about 0.75 inches toward the copilot side so it would clear the mixture arm. I had to trim off the top of the filter because the captive bolts were poking the filter. Design is a series of compromises, I guess. I hate to hack up the filter but I was tired of fucking with it and something had to give.

Finally, I've been working on the subpanel now that I've started wiring the cockpit. The center section was the first up, and it came out well. I'm planning to install the cockpit instruments on the bench rather than in the actual plane (I'm not good at yoga).

The spotty green paint is zinc chromate primer. It's supposed to be a light coat, so while it looks stupid this is what you get. The factor claims you don't need any paint at all because the aluminum has an alclad layer that protects it from corrosion. Oh well, better safe that sorry.