Week 181 - Headrest and seat belts

Hours to date: 1623.0

When I said the headrest was finished - I lied.

I've still got to make up the area that the foam and leather will be attached to.

I started doing this in modelling foam (after first making a cardboard mock up).

All was looking good until I thought about the shoulder harness and how it may conflict with the headrest.

So then I spent yesterday installing the seat belts and sure enough the headrest would be in the way of the shoulder harness. So I'm now in the process of remodelling the foam to a shape that works.

When done I'll cover it in a couple of layers of fiberglass.

In doing all of this I found that the lap strap when adjusted to it's tightest position is still not quite tight enough (certainly not as tight as I would like it for aerobatics). So I think I'll have to add some material underneath the cell to take up some of the play.

I've also just started the side pocket job. This will be made up of a few layers of glass in the shape shown below. After that the upholsterer will add a layer of leather to it and then another slightly smaller piece to the front with a zip at the top to make a pocket.

I hope to get the upholstery started (or even finished) before the engine gets here.

In the meantime I am a bit stalled on the electrics as I really want to install the ECU in the upper footwell area of the safety cell and I don't want to do this after I've installed the top part of the instrument panel as the access in this area would be too limited by then.

Firewall all done - ready for the engine now!

Used 90 degree elbows to go through the cell for the Static and Pitot lines

Outside view

Bonded in with Flock. And the remote GPS antenna is also in place.

Cardboard mock up of the headrest.

Black line shows where the side/map pocket will go.

Foam model of the cardboard mock up.

With the seat belts in place

Shoulder harness conflicts so will have to change the shape of the headrest

Part way through reshaping the headrest.