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ACS also sells a caulk called "Firewall 2000" which is used to install the blanket and seal the seams. Although the blanket is flexible, it’s not very flexible. Therefore, when installing it, it is best to cut it to fit small areas and not try to bend it around corners. The foils seem to separate from the fibrous ceramic material if it is flexed very much. You can seal the joints and edges of the sections with the Firewall 2000 and it looks like it is supposed to be that way. Very neat. I placed small "dollops" of the Firewall 2000 randomly (1.5" apart or so) around on the aluminum side of the blanket to adhere it to the engine compartment surfaces.

"WARNING!" When handling this firewall material, wear gloves and be VERY careful. The stainless steel foil on the surface is REALLY wicked. It will cut you like a brand new razor blade before you even know it! I am NOT exaggerating. I am typing this right now with cuts all over my hands. BE CAREFUL. Also, you want to seal any exposed edges of the material with the caulk. Just a light film will do. This serves 2 purposes. First you want the seal to include the edges of the stainless foil so you won’t cut yourself on it in the future when working in the engine compartment. Also, the fibrous ceramic material is absorbent and you don’t want it absorbing rainwater or oil that might permeate the engine compartment from time to time. That would diminish its effectiveness.

I started to order the material from ACS in California and they informed me that it would be

 shipped UPS "oversize". That means that it would cost more than if it were within the dimensions for "normal" size UPS packages. Since the dimensions of the material were 2’ X 3’ X 3/16" thick, and since I knew that those dimensions were no where near "oversize" for UPS, I asked "why oversize?" The order taker had no explanation, but wouldn’t budge off the oversize charges. Said that was what the computer said and nothing could be done about it. I canceled the order and called ACS in Georgia and talked to a nice young man who said "sure they could ship it within the "normal" category which they did. I even told them to roll it up since it is rollable and they did. I was a little perturbed that they shipped the caulk in a completely separate box, which cost more. The caulk could have been put in the same box as the firewall material because there was plenty of room at much less shipping cost.

I ordered 1 tube of the caulk and a piece of the material 2’ X 3’. This covered the forward wall and the engine compartment floorboard back to the aft side of the aft engine mount bridge and the cover over the access hole to the engine compartment in the luggage compartment. It worked out just right with very little waste and covered just exactly what I wanted to cover. It was just a guess, but worked out well. The material comes 2’ wide and as long as you want I guess. It is sold by the lineal foot. If you want to make sure you have enough, you may want to get 4 lineal feet or 2’ X 4’, but 2’ x 3’ did it for me. The one tube of Firewall 2000 should definitely be adequate. If not, you have wasted a lot. I had about 1/3rd of a tube left when finished.
RELIEVING THE LG-5 NOSE GEAR LINK
I have had a few cases where a builder has bent the rod end on the nose gear cylinder rod and in one case, the cylinder rod itself was bent. That can get pretty expensive. In the one case, the builder failed to follow the plans, and in his zeal to "try out" his linkage, exercised the linkage before he had relieved the LG-5 upper link to clear the rod end and the cylinder rod when the gear is extended. In the other case, the builder did in fact notch his LG-5, but then later he reinstalled the LG-5 backwards and the unnoticed side caused  the rod end to be bent.

I’m not bringing this up to embarrass anyone, but to give others the benefit of this experience in order that they may know what mistakes to try to avoid. I have spent a lot of time trying to cover all the bases in the plans and trying to explain why a lot of things are the way they are so you guys won’t have to learn the hard way, but it only takes a moment of inattentativeness to overcome all my efforts. So be careful and think things out as you make progress.
GLASS GOOSE GAZETTE * ISSUE #18, April, 2001
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