Drilled four engine mount holes through firewall.  Shaped and sanded custom washers for inside of firewall bolts.  Bonded washers with a mill-fiber mixture using engine mount as securing device.  Installed adjuster bolt at rear of fuselage stand and leveled fuselage.

Removed all of the upper landing gear mounting brackets to have them stripped and powder-coated.  They were spray-painted white by the original owner when he fabricated them.

Here is the fuselage after landing gear has been aligned, installed and drilled, then removed for powder-coating the parts.

This was the first of three times that I enjoyed installing new landing gear!

Began fabricating rudder pedal weldments.

Fabricated rudder pedal pieces.  None of this stuff was pre-made when kit 446 left SH.

Trimmed and sanded left side window opening to final size.  Rough-cut right side window opening.

Trimmed back 1/2" of the inside laminates on the left window opening. Finished trimming the right window opening.  Started trimming the foam back 1/4" for the left window installation.  Marked the inner laminates of the right window opening for trimming.  Drew plan for building-up the door jam area to be like the GII's.

Finished trimming foam in both side window openings.  Laid plexiglass against fuselage and marked cut lines.
Cleaned up huge mess of foam and dust.  Prepared for cutting plexiglass.

Cut, fitted and bonded both side windows in place.  To install the side windows and get the look of the newer planes, I followed the instructions for the optional rear windows.  I used a small laminate trimmer-router to make the step in the outside edge so it would be flush after mounting.  I taped the inside edge in preparation for laminates.  Then I applied sign strip to both sides of both windows and applied a new coat to the windshield when done.  

 

This is another view of how flush I was able to fit the windows.

 
 

I REALIZED I MADE A MISTAKE!

I cut the right canopy glass opening 1" too low at the bottom.  The top was ok.  I had to painstakingly remove the portion of the glass that was too low, trim the edge to have the same groove, as if I had done it right, then rebuild the inside and outside of the canopy frame.  This has actually taken me about 9 hours worth of work and infinitely more just thinking of how to resolve it.  

Hindsight:  SLOW DOWN......