Our "Approved Vendor" list:

Finding good people, good products and good service; usually a case of "Pick one, accept the outcome". Here is a list of vendors we  give our highest personal recommendations for, your mileage may vary. If we left you out it is either we have not had the opportunity to interact with you ...or maybe we did? Those listed only indicate products we have chosen to use on our Cozy MK IV and this is not to imply that the alternatives are in any way inferior. Listing is in alphabetical or no particular order.

Please mention we referred you, we are shameless beggars and always trying for a discount :)

Before you build, you are going to need plans:

Blue Mountain Avionics
www.bluemountainavionics.com
greg@bluemountainavionics.com
5035 Highway 64
Copperhill, TN 37317

(866) FLY-EFIS
(423) 496-3510
Contact: Greg Richter
Product or Service:

To quote Greg's words directly: "I just couldn't get my mind around having a panel full of Ye Olde Steam Gauges as cockpit instrumentation. I was thinking more along the lines of the F/22 or maybe what they put in the Gulfstreams, but my budget wasn't going along with it" ... I could not have put it any better, not that I even know what an F/22 or Gulfstream even looks like but yes, I'll take two! 
Two.. yes that seems to be where we are headed; one EFIS on each side, radios up the middle and stuff the few backup steam gauges on the outside edges. This is the perfect dual pilot plane so why be a chauvinist pig and segregate your flying stuff all to one side and the rest to the other? 
Randi gets lost in the mall, even if I am the driver and she is the navigatrix, what am I going to do when she takes us to Gilligan's Island? Easy... "Randi, you've got the con", hit the screen flip switch and explain to her that the cute little airplane in the middle of my screen is us, make everything perfectly clear, once she is reset I can wrench the controls away from her.. that will be the hard part. 

Bruce Turrentine
Custom Mazda Engines
BruceTurrentine@aol.com
5337 Trestlewood Ln. Raleigh, NC 27610
(919) 212-0671
Contact: Bruce
Products or Services:

Bruce comes highly recommended by several people. He builds custom 2 and 3 rotor engines for aviation use. He is conservative, conscientious and methodical in his work. If you are considering or curious about this engine as an alternative, do yourself a huge favor and buy his video, it is an education by a first rate educator. He was very helpful and patient with all our questions. I drove from St. Louis to Raleigh, NC to pick up our engine, meet him and check out his facility. I was not surprised to find a neat and orderly shop and signs of a very methodical person. 

Composite Design
www.compositedesigninc.com
9425 Honeysuckle Drive
Sebastian, Florida 32976
(772) 664-8953
Contact: Wayne & Sandie Lanza, Mike Murray
Products or Services:

Wayne makes a great little kit for the speed brake that includes instructions and a molded adjustable mounting bracket. His electrical panels cover pretty much everything you would want to control power distribution to.

Gary Hall
http://www.uslan.com/hinge-kit
777 S. St Rd. 7
Suite 506
Margate, FL
(954) 979-9494
Contact: Gary Hall
Products or Services:

Gary's hinge kits consist of a length of thin walled Teflon tubing that fits over a length of high grade stainless steel wire. My guess is this mod should be mandatory as many people eventually report hinge wear. Why not get it out of the way up front for $31.00 and not worry about it?

Infinity Aerospace
www.infinityaerospace.com
Mail: P.O. Box 12275, Dept. HP,   El Cajon, CA  92022
Location: 1750 Joe Crosson Drive, #D-2,   El Cajon, CA  92020
Phone:  (619) 448-5103
FAX:  (619) 448-5176
Contact: JD & Pattie Newman
Products or Services:

We chose to go with retractable main gear before we even bought our plans. See elsewhere on our site for a discussion on this subject. 
JD's stick grips are well tooled and use high quality switches with REASONABLE actuation forces (just try to move a switch on a military plane on display at an air show) 
The Matco products we have are well made. 
It is difficult to understand why people would not use spherical bearings on torque tubes whose motion describes an arc in multiple axis. The plans phenolic blocks wear out and then you have aileron control problems.

Shapiro Supply
www.ShapiroSupply.com
5617 Natural Bridge Avenue
St. Louis, MO 63120
(800) 833-1259
FAX (314) 382-8557
TEL (314) 382-7000
Products:
Metals Distributor, great prices and service.

We consider ourselves to be spoiled rotten and incredibly lucky to have this metals supplier nearby. They have all the usual metal sheets and bits but more importantly for the aviation enthusiast they have a better selection of 4130 Chrome Moly steel and Aluminum sheets and extrusions than Home Depot has nails. Also saw some tooling blocks of aluminum for those REALLY BIG projects!
Their selection is enhanced by helpful staff and great service.
They have an online catalog and a current 2002 catalog. If you don't see it, call them.
If you are in the local area be sure to go by and check out the basement. This is where all the cool surplus, odd-n-ends and auction buyouts are; lots of tools and stuff you could otherwise not afford.
Last time we were there we picked up a great 
Meisei HOTweezerThermal Wire Stripper and some wire harness lacing tape, this is the stuff you want to learn how to use instead of tie-wraps.

Todd's Canopies
http://www.kgarden.com/todd/
BSILVER05@aol.com
5201 NE 3 Ave.
Ft. Lauderdale, FL 33334
954-579-0874
Contact: Todd Silver
Products or Services:

Todd was the "approved" vendor of choice for the prestigious Berkut kits. He is also building a Cozy himself. Contact Todd for samples of the materials and tints he offers.

Real World Solutions
http://www.rotaryaviation.com
 tcrook@rotaryaviation.com
5500 NW 72nd Way
Bell, Florida 32619 USA
386/935-2973
Contact: Tracy & Laura Crook
Products or Services:

Tracy has 1230+ hours on his Mazda powered RV-4. His ReDrive (reduction drive) design is based on the HD 6 pinion planetary gear assembly out of a Ford HD truck transmission. The other half of the magic to making this engine work in a plane is controlling the ignition and fuel injection. Tracy designed the EC-2 for this purpose and  it works great.

Wicks Aircraft Supply
www.wicksaircraft.com
info@wicksaircraft.com
410 Pine Street
Highland, Illinois 62249
800-221-9425
Contact: Jerome, Linda, Don
Products or Services:

These folks are the greatest. We call them in the morning, pick the stuff up an hour or so later. Yes we are spoiled; it is only a 45 min drive for us.

"This is an arts and crafts thing"