Update 9/22
Received my engine mount from Jerry Hey a couple weeks ago, he did a very fine job. I've done initial fitting of the frame and nose strut bracket & everything was aligned well. One 'gotcha' was the upper frame members contacted the nose gear strut shelf due to their steep declination angle. Some spacers quickly fixed that.

Other news, I attended the Zenith open house on Saturday 9/20. Weather was wonderful, I took my motorcycle for the 3 hour trip to Mexico, MO. Three 801 builders flew their planes in, and I was able to fly the Zenith 801 factory demonstrator for the first time!. The best part about it was I was able to sit next to another pilot and my shoulders didn't shove him into his door. The 801 is exceptionally roomy inside.

I took a bunch of photo's of the 801's, I'll upload them when my iMac gets out of the shop :(.

As for progress, I've been prepping the engine and mount for installation; should have the rotary hanging on the firewall within a few weeks. All recent updates are in the 'engine building' sections.
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Update 8/24-
Took most of the month off from building. Spent two weeks on Army Reserve summer AT, then came back to my normal summer 'honeydo's'. Mixed in with normal summer activity it was hard to get back into it.

When I did return, I got into a 'clean-up' mode, finishing a bunch of little projects that have been dangling. The elevator control rod was dragging on a bearing at the extreme of the bellcrank swing; the port brake master cylinder was interfering with the rudder pedal with full down travel, and I needed to install the rudder cable pulleys to finish the bellcrank housing & install the cables. Got most of that done this weekend.
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Update 7/7-
Fuse is now in my basement workshop! Was chatting with one of the guys in my Sunday School class and discovered he has his own tow company with a 18ft tilt-bed truck. Early one morning last week he met me at my storage unit & had the fuse strapped down in 15 minutes. If you live in the KC area and need your plane moved, call John White at 913-219-2689; he's a real pro.

I've finished the alternator bracket (see engine updates) and gone back to work on the fuse. I do need to fab a new intake manifold, but it's so nice to have the fuse back at home I can't help tinkering with it a bit.

Jerry Hey's working on my mount now, should have it by the end of July. This is putting some pressure on getting the rest of the engine work done; I'd like to hear it come to life after it's mounted.
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Update 5/28-
Engine progressing nicely, should be moving the fuse home in the next couple of weeks. All that's really left to finish on the engine is the intake manifold / exhaust system.

I've put a deposit down with Jerry Hey on an engine mount. I was going to do it myself but the experience with the oil pan "helped me reassess the limits of my welding skills". Plus, Jerry's done a bunch of these, is working on another 801, and has the time to do the jig properly.

Also, off-loading the mount allows me to return to the fuse, where I intend to finish the fuel system & start the panel / electrical system. The goal is to have as much as possible ready to plug into the engine when the mount arrives in August.

Other news; I've acquired more fuel system components, and should be receiving my RWS EC3 this week.

More pictures soon.

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Update 4/7-
Check out the 'engine' section for entries / pics of my rotary engine conversion. I've stripped it down to the block & started converting the oil pan and intake manifold. I'll be working on the conversion this month.

I haven't moved the fuse to the house yet; no real priority to do so as I'm working on the engine conversion at the moment. I should be getting to the point where I need the fuse to do the engine mount within a few weeks; I'll move it in then.

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Update 3/4-
Yep, it's really been 3 months since my last update, and almost no progress on the project in the interval. In addition to the holidays, December saw me closing on the house in TX and moving the family here to KS, where we closed on our house up here in January. All this in addition to my normal drill schedule for the Reserves meant I had no time for the project.

The new house has a huge basement workshop with a dedicated garage door entryway to the backyard- perfect for the project (which may have been a factor in selecting this house... maybe) Problem is, the shop served as a staging area for all the boxes of stuff we had to unpack. It's now cleared out enough to get the fuse moved in. I'll probably keep the storage unit to store the wings & h-stab/elevator, as they take up so much space.

I attended the EAA868 chapter meeting last night, I'm getting psyched back up to get started again. Stopped by the shop to get everything packed up well enough to have the fuse moved to the house. Plan to have that done within the next two weeks.

Stand by.

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Update 11/26-
Good progress this month. It's amazing how having nothing else to do can accelerate building :) Finished final installation of landing gear, pedals, brakes, brake lines, aileron torque tube, horiz tubes, elevator pushrod, bellcrank, flap motor, flap torque tube,... whew. I thank that's most of it.

I also acquired my Dynon D180, power panel, master switch/solenoid, etc., so I can start on my panel "for real".

Next step is to start on the fuel lines and panel. I can take the panel to my apt and work on it there, which should speed it up.
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Update 10/25-
Progress in strange ways. I'm in KS and my plane was in TX. I took a 4 day weekend, drove down to Houston, and towed my plane home on an 6x10 utility trailer. The weather on the first day of the return trip was terrible; pictures attached. I can honestly say I've had the plane up to 1800 ft & 75mph :/)

The other accomplishment was receiving my renesis rotary engine today. It looks pretty clean, I'll be running compression tests this weekend. My redrive & ECU from rotaryaviation are due around February. This'll give me time to get a mount figured out.

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Update 10/17-
I ordered the engine today; a 2004 Mazda Rx-8 'Renesis'. My hand was shaking as I took out the credit card, as I'm aware of the amount of additional effort it will take to convert this thing. I've reviewed Tracy Crook's book on the conversion & I'm confident it's doable.
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Update 10/13-
I've done some fiddling with the Y-control, torque tube, and cabin bearings, but not much progress this month. I've changed jobs, forcing a relocation to the KC-Kansas area. Texas Yardart's about to become "Kansas Yardart". Actually, I've rented a storage bay in KS to stow the beast in 'till I'm done buying / selling houses. The bay has power, and is 5 minutes from work, so I should be able to continue progress. I've also started contacting local salvage yards for an RX-8 engine.

I spent all my free time for the last 3 weeks getting my house ready to put on the market. The last step of which will be to get the airplane out of the backyard.

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Update 09/19-
On advice of someone I know & trust, I bought a pneumatic DA sander to address the 'splattered' coat of paint on the fuse. I've been trying to wet-sand it smooth by hand, with the only result being I now need a chiropracter to fix my shoulder.

The DA sander knocked the entire fuse smooth in a short Saturday. I spent some time dressing up the primer, then waited for a cold front (need that low humidity!). Prayers were answered this past weekend, as a front pushed through & dropped the humidity into the 60's, so I re-shot the fuse in my backyard on Saturday. Someone else loaned me a high-end auto finish gun, so this coat went on great.

It's funny how this came about, as I wasn't planning on repainting the fuse yet. I've been working on the controls, and have everything ready to go into the cabin (except for the rudder pedals- Zenith sent me two right pedals!). But the cabin interior was blank aluminum, and if I installed the controls prior to painting it, I would have to spend much time taping off everything I'd just installed.

So I needed to paint the cabin interior prior to final installation of the controls. And if I had all the equipment out & set up to do the interior, I may as well do the exterior as well, ... so it snowballed.

The primer is adhering great, and this new topcoat couldn't have gone on better. I only found two bugs in it while buffing :/)
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Update 08/02-
I've finished the doors (sans windows) and started on the flight controls. I intend to get the cabin plumbed- controls, fuel lines, wiring, etc, next.

I test-fit the tail feathers this week, just to see how they look & move them so I could clean up their storage area. It's amazing how big this airplane is going to be!

I won't be painting anything for a while; I do it outside, and the humidity here on the gulf coast in the summer is far too high. Gives me more time to wet-sand.

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Update 06/24-
YardArt's on her own feet! She's finally a vehicle. Basically a very expensive wheelbarrow, but still a vehicle :)

The landing gear's on, a few items left to clean up. I didn't install all the bolts attaching the main gear spring 'forks' to the fuse, and I need to drill & install cotter pins several places. But she's up & I can move her around the yard.

If I can get a few days w/o rain, I'll put the final color coat & clearcoat on. Until then, I'll work inside the cabin- doors, fuel lines, etc.

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Update 05/21-
Installed the nose gear strut & lower bearing (the upper bearing was pre-installed with the QB fuse). There was a slight hitch installing the lower bearing support. One of the 4 bottom-most rivets in the strut channel protruted into the cabin enough to conflict with a bolt retaining the lower bearing support. The bolt wouldn't drop into the hole, the rivet was in the way. Corrected this by drilling out the rivet, installing the bolt, then re-riveting. Instructions should be updated to leave off those rivets until after the bearing support is installed.

I'm taking a break from fuel tanks, reconsidering making them from fiberglass. The VE resin requires multiple plys to be watertight, making the tank much heavier than it need be. I may weld them up from stainless, haven't decided yet.

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Updated 04/30-
Still working on fuel tanks !@#$@! Seemed awful simple when I first conceived of making my own tanks, but as in all engineering, the devil's in the details.

I've discarded all tanks made previously (including those mentioned below). It was pointed out to me that epoxy resin isn't suitable for fuel with ethanol additives, and I want to keep the feature of filling with mogas if needed.

I ordered a gallon of vinyl-ester resin from AS & started over. I also wanted to improve the joint between the upper & lower halves as they're refitted together.

So now I'm back to one tank at 90%, just starting the second. One big advantage of the different resin is it cures in minutes instead of hours. This let me finish the shell of a tank in a weekend, instead of a month. Unfortunately, it's also much more destructive to foam, and did some damage to my plug that I spent time repairing.
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Updated 03/05-
Very little accomplished recently, the weather was terrible all of January, and I spent February travelling on business. Just got back to the project this weekend.

The fiberglass tanks are shaping up nicely, they should be installed in the next week or two, then I can close up the left wing. I've also taken a step back to fix a twisted elevator. Dave, a fellow 801 builder, sent me his fuel lines & fittings to use for my FI return line. He's decided to go with rigid fuel lines instead of the flex line shipped with the kit.

Very anxious to get started on the gear, I want to see the yardart up on its own three feet!

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Updated 01/08-
Happy New Year!
I accomplished quite a bit over the holiday. Finished the plug for the fuel tanks & cast the first tank. I'm going to finish it before I do the other 3.
Installed the pitot mast, hangars for tubes & lines in the left wing, and a bunch of paint stripping & wet-sanding.

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Update 11/27-
The left wing is nearing completion; just need to fit the pitot tube standoff & fuel tanks. I've started the remaining tasks for the right wing.

The primer is peeling off the the h-stab and elevator; they need to be completely stripped & re-painted. This is disappointing, as I used an expensive "aircraft" primer for them. (the rattle-can self etching primer on the rudder is holding fast...) The primer was Epibond W2248, and yes, I followed the surface prep instructions on the can. My best guess is the adhesion failure is due to the high humidity on the day I shot the empennage.

I recently primed the fuselage with PPG self-etch (auto primer), and it is also adhering quite well.

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Update 10/20-
I'm working on my custom fiberglass fuel tanks. This is slow-going, as it's trial and error. I do think it will work out OK eventually, but this first tank is a write-off.

I did reserve my N number this month! N801KA is mine, got the letter this week. Now I have an incentive to finish the plane in the next calender year, before my reservation needs to be renewed.
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Update 9/27-
Received the fuselage on Monday! I had to spend a couple days at home with sick kids, so I hooked up the baby intercom & went outside to work on wings.

Working around the yards of sheetmetal sitting on various fixtures around me, I had that flash of inspiration I'd been waiting for- the name of the airplane... Texas YardArt.

The quickbuild fuse is unpacked & sitting in a place of honor in my backyard. Still knockin' out progress on the wings.

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Update 9/21-
Making progress on the wings; haven't started the slats / flaps kit yet. QB fuselage is arriving next week (crate is 19ft long, 4+ft x 4+ft w/h! 850lbs...)

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I recognize it's ugly, but to me it's an amazingly capable airplane- huge payload, 4 seats, comfy cabin, rugged construction, and STOL performance. As a low-time VFR pilot, it's also very economical to insure & operate.