I finished the landing light install for the right wing today. Rather, I’ve completed as much as can be completed prior to purchase of the actual lights.

First I bought a belt sander at Lowes along with several other goodies. I clamped the belt sander to my work bench, creating a bench sander! I used the belt sander to clean up the edges of the plexiglass lens. 

After the plexi was cleaned up I set about drilling the plexi. This requires the creation of a strap handle to pull the lens tight to the skin. 

Here you can see the lens strap handle with the lens held in place with clocoes after drilling.

Additionally, I final drilled and countersunk the plexi. Finally I riveted the nut plates to the backing strips. The instructions call for the strips to be countersunk, but the material is too thin for that to be the truly correct solution. I chose to dimple the strips and the nut plates. It was really cold in the garage, but I heated everything as best I could. No cracks in the plexi, but there are two spots on one hole that look like they could be the very start of the faintest cracks. I may drill that hole out to be bigger when it gets warmer.  Everything took longer than I would expect as it takes a fair amount of trail and error to get the strap to line up and work properly, and I didn’t want to make a mistake in the drilling.