January 9 Update

New galvanized steel firewall

Upper bend of firewall

Hi everyone!  

As mentioned in the last post, the firewall is done.  It was made from 22 ga. galvanized steel like the original.  A lot of bending, but not too difficult overall.  The final fit came out nice.

Cam gear

 Then it was back to the OX-5 for a while.  I wanted to find and mark TDC and confirm that the magneto timing marks were correct.  The magneto is timed to 32 degrees BTDC.

Timing indicator used to find TDC

I'm a big fan of the "flower pot" timing indicator.  A plug is screwed in the spark plug hole of cylinder #1.  The engine is then rotated in both directions until the piston contacts the plug which will accurately locate TDC of that cylinder. 

Timing marks

The black ink mark is just my reference for TDC, the 2 "MM" marks is the tooth location for the magneto drive gear.  Once these marks are moved to the proper location, they are 32 degrees BTDC - Good!

Intake pull-down tubes and straps installed

I then installed the intake valve pull-down tubes and straps as previously talked about.  This will allow me to install the rest of the overhead which I am preparing now.  I should be ready to go over that in the next post.

Water outlet hoses

Prior to installing the rest of the overhead, the rocker arm supports that are also the water outlet tubes had to be installed.

Original hose and clamps with new clamp

Having original hoses, I as able to determine they were red in color. I also had original clamps, although unusable - most were broke.  You can still purchase red radiator and heater hose which is what I did as seen in the upper photo.  Fortunately, I as able to find very similar looking clamps from Restoration Supply Co.  Although not a perfect match, they are very close.

With these parts installed, I'll be able to attach the rest of the overhead once finished.

Streamlined wires!

 And...all of my streamlined wires arrived from Bruntons.  I didn't want to open them all up yet, so this picture is not very exciting - sorry!

Here is one of the transverse wires, though.  These wires go diagonal between the cabane struts and adjust the wings so they are centered over the longitudinal axis - hence, why they are called transverse wires.  These wires have a round portion and streamlined portion as typical with most biplanes from that era.

Transverse wire

To be honest, I'm not sure what I'm doing on the airframe next.  On the OX-5, I'll be finishing up the overhead.  Until next time....