P-51C Mustang - Firewall Dzus Fastener Mounts

After getting a 97 on my A&P General written exam, I could finally dive back into my Mustang. First task is to create the Dzus fastener mounts to replace the ugly molded squares on the kit firewall. Now at times doing this, I did question my own sanity and you'll see why at the end. It took some playing around to figure out how to do this, but they came out pretty good.

First up, I cut a thin strip of soda can aluminum .040" wide. Soda can aluminum is thin but tough, but the good thing is you can cut it with a sharp razor. Working with it is quite the pain though, especially at this size.

As with any metal, there are always burrs to get rid of after it's cut. Soda can aluminum also has a film on the inside and colored ink on the outside to get rid of. The best way to accomplish both is to scrap it off with a sharp razor. Clean up what's left with some fine sandpaper. You should see the natural shiny aluminum surface. The difference is quite clear.

I had to make a jig so that my Dzus fastener mounts will joggle evenly. Those are just .020" plastic strips glued to a .040" base. The spacing comes from folding a scrap piece of soda aluminum over the edge of a .040" piece of plastic. You'll see how this works below.

Take the strip of soda can aluminum and fold it over the edge of the .040" sheet. This doesn't make perfect corners in the metal, but it gives you something to start with. I cleaned up the corners by pressing a thin metal ruler into them.

Once the corners are formed, I took a really small drill bit and drilled a hole in the center. Now place the bent strip back on the edge and hold the jig on top of it.

Hold this down firm and use a razor blade to bend down both tails of the metal strip.

Again this won't create perfect corners, but it gives you an edge to work with, but most importantly, it gives you even joggles. I used the sharp clean 90 degree corners of my dial caliper to clean up these corners.

Once you cut off the excess tails, you end up with a pretty good looking, yet insanely small Dzus fastener mount.

On the real Mustang the mounts sit on L shaped brackets, which are simple enough to make. Cut a strip, cut to length, and fold it in half. Simple right...And it looks pretty good

The kink is this bracket is not straight, it's curved. And I don't have a microscopic stretching machine to bend this piece. So what to do? The answer: Cheat

Here is the finished piece with the mounts sitting on it to make it look cool. But how is it bend? It's really just an illusion. The piece is technically still straight. I gently bent down the ends of the horizontal side to give it a curved appearance and then filed down the corners of the vertical side to make it look more round. Together, this creates the illusion that the bracket is curved. I may even add more of a "curve" to the piece before I glue it to the firewall.

So if you're now questioning my sanity, I agree with you. This is nuts, but really this looks so much better than the little boxes on the kit piece and they will look even better once they are glued in place and painted.

Next up, replacing the metal straps on the oil tank....