Chaos! So many components. So many wires. So little room.

Cutting our the instrument panel was not as bad as I feared. The only tools I required was the Dremmel cutting wheel, drill bits, and files. I think it turned out simple and quite user friendly.

Instrument Panel Cutout

That carbon fiber vinyl adds a nice (dark) effect. You can see I was short one circuit breaker. It arrived and I’ve since filled that hole. Then I learned that one of those circuit breakers is not needed. Oops! The EMS get’s it’s power from the display. I’m just gonna leave it in the panel. Don’t tell anyone it’s not connected to anything.

Instrument Panel

So there’s all that stuff that goes into the instrument panel. But then there’s all this stuff that is part of the instruments but doesn’t go IN the panel.

  • EMS with three big cabler harnesses that stick out.
  • Transponder
  • Comm box
  • Backup battery
  • Fuel level sensor box

There’s more but this is all the stuff that I had planned to install behind the instrument panel. I fabricated a shelf that would go right behind the panel and in front of the fuel tank. It’s a place to mount all the components and keep the wires in place. I thought I could fit everything in there, with a couple components underneath. But once I put it in place in the fuselage, I noticed that the harnesses of the comm and transponder stuck out the side a bit too far. The glaresheild wouldn’t be able to fit.

Dash Design, Bad

The EMS, with its big cables, had to go. But where? Eventually I decided there was room on the front right side of the fuselage where my leg would not really interfere with anything. Since I was at it, I felt like this would be a better home for the backup battery and fuel sensor box, which were originally mounted upsidedown underneath the intrument panel. Fabricating that mount took almost a full day.

You can see that this is where I decided to place the main electric bus and avionics bus (upside down), along with my Stratus.

Side Panels

In addition, these things also got done:

  • CHT temp probes installed
  • EGT probes installed
  • GPS antenna installed
  • VHF antenna installed
  • Contactors, master and alternator, mounted to firewall
  • Side engine baffles modified with nutplates so they can be removed
  • Hired welder to weld bushing to intake manifold for MAP sensor
  • Completed most small wiring local to instrument panel
  • Family vacation in Page, AZ. :)