Main Gear Struts
Jabiru 430.com
A novice builders experience with building a Jabiru J430 aeroplane.
Main undercarriage strut installation

The instructions separate all the steps out but this can lead to trouble.  I had to remove and reinstall the bolt backing plates three times. Each time took a day while the epoxy cured. It took ages to try to get the bolts to fit then had to heat up the plates to soften the epoxy and lift the plates and clean out the epoxy/flock and start again.

The problem. 
The instructions say to flock in the plates then let cure.  Then install the main undercarriage struts and do up the bolts and plates etc.
However if you install the plates without having the struts in place you end up with the bolts either
1.Too short because you used too much epoxy/flock.
2.Not wide enough apart to go round the strut
3.Not exactly parallel so it won’t fit round the strut

There is basically minimal tolerance in the position of these bolts.  If I were doing it again it would install the plates, put the bolts through and bolt the struts in place in one move.  Use grease on the bolts and maybe on the main U/C struts as well to stop them sticking together.  Maybe carefully separate the strut before cured so you can be sure it won’t stick together.  Also you could use packaging tape wrapped around the strut then grease the tape lightly to stop the epoxy sticking to it. Be aware that the epoxy WILL run and get in places it shouldn't so be meticulous in covering everything that should not get epoxy onto it.

The instructions say use 5/16 rods (which aren't supplied anyway)  but this doesn’t let you install the struts properly as you can’t really fit the struts and do up the nuts.