Knurled Hose Fittings & Hoses

All of the Worr footshells comes predrilled with some smallish holes right were the footstrips and the knurled hose fittings are supposed to go.

As for the footstrips, I've heard of a few folks epoxying some sort of mounting studs to the strips that allow them to be attached to the feet through the predrilled holes. Some folks simply epoxy the strips directly to the feet. And some use VHB tape. At the time of this writing, I haven't really committed to any particular approach (although I'm leaning towards the VHB route.)

As for the knurled hose fittings, they're threaded 5/8"-18 and the standard Worr holes aren't anywhere near big enough to accommodate that. Fortunately, they're located in just the right spots.

Suffice it to say that they must be "opened up" a bit. The best tool for this is a stepper drill bit.

I put a stepper bit into my drill and went to down (albeit, slowly), testing a KHF against each step as I went.

Once the holes were big enough, I filed down any burs and, because rust is an issue with steel, I hit them with a coat of self-etching primer.

I then installed the KHF along with the footstrips. The fittings didn't come with any nuts, so I had to hunt for some. And let me tell ya, 5/8"-18 nuts are hard to find in my neck of the woods. Neither Lowes nor Home Depot had them. I ended up having to special order them from BoltDepot.com.

At this point in time, I haven't permanently attached the other footstrips. I haven't decided if I'm going to paint them white or leave them bare. The direction I choose obviously has implications as to when they should be attached to the feet. As such, I currently have some cheap magnetic tape affixed to their backs to they can be temporarily mounted to the feet.

More to come...