31 MAY 15: Dimpling, page 28-11 steps 2-5, page 28-15 steps 5-6: 7.75 hours

Riveted nutplates to the F-1043A-L/R fuselage bulkheads:

Riveted nutplates to the F-1043B-L/R fuselage bulkheads.  Installed the tunnel access panel on the right hand forward fuselage rib.  Doubler installed:

Cover panel installed:

Now that the access plate is installed, I attached the rib to the firewall.  ‘Slight’ back rivet plate misalignment – doh!!!

The good news is that at this point in the build, I have enough experience with replacing rivets that this doesn’t even phase me!  Grind off the mangled manufactured head with the dremel:

Drilled out – no fuss no muss:

Good as new – only a 15 minute detour…

Riveted the F-1043-L/R attach angles to the forward fuselage ribs:

Dimpling my life away – once again…

Riveted the seat rail supports to the forward fuselage bulkheads:

Finished up the evening by riveting together the seat floor assemblies:

25 MAY 15: Debur, Prekote: 6.25 hours

Finished deburring and Prekoting fuse parts.  Not my favorite jobs for sure, but a necessary evil!

26 MAY 15: Priming: 3 hours

Finished priming fuse parts – ran out of primer, so didn’t get the bottom skin done.  Waiting on a couple parts from Vans that I messed up (elongated countersunk holes), so I have to do another priming session anyway:

27 MAY 15: Page 28-3 steps 5-7, page 28-11 step 1: 2.25 hours

Installed nutplates onto the F-1043C-L/R attach angles.  Assembled the outboard and inboard seat rail supports:

28 MAY 15: Page 28-3 steps 2-3: 1.25 hours

Messed up the original side channels – elongated the countersunk holes.  Redid the new side channels that I received from Van’s – no pics.

29 MAY 15: Page 28-4 steps 2-5, page 28-5 steps 1-3: 1.25 hours

Clecoed, match-drilled, and deburred the left forward fuselage bulkhead sub-assembly – no pics.

30 MAY 15: Page 28-4 steps 2-5, page 28-5 steps 1-3: 7.75 hours

Clecoed, match-drilled, and deburred the right forward fuselage bulkhead sub-assembly.  Prekoted and primed the redone sidechannels, floor pans, and bottom skins:

18 MAY 15: Page 28-2 steps 1-5, pg 28-3 steps 1-3: 2.25 hours

Parts for the next section:

Broke apart, clecoed, and match-drilled the F-1043C-L/R attach angles to the forward fuselage ribs.  Final drilled and countersunk the nutplate attach holes.  Final drilled and countersunk the seat rail supports. 

19 MAY 15: Page 28-4 step 1, pg 28-5 step 4: 3.75 hours

Drilled, cut, and deburred the control column mounts:

Clecoed and final drilled the fuselage floor ribs to the F-1072 forward fuse bottom skin:

20 MAY 15: Page 28-5 step 4, pg 28-6 steps 1-3, 28-7 steps 1-2: 2.75 hours

Finished final drilling the fuselage floor ribs to the F-1072 forward fuse bottom skin.  Clecoed the forward fuse skin to the firewall bulkhead assembly:

Final drilled all parts and floor panels.

21 MAY 15: Page 28-7 steps 2-3, pg 28-8 steps 1-4, 28-9 steps 1-2: 4 hours

Finished match-drilling floor panels.  Clecoed and match-drilled the center section bulkead to the forward fuselage ribs.  Matted the mid and forward fuselage assemblies and final-drilled all holes common to the F-1076 center bottom skin.  The structure is beginning to get larger!

22 MAY 15: Page 28-10 steps 1-12, center tunnel access panel: 5.25 hours

Began deburring and countersinking all parts.  Countersinking the bottom flange of the center section bulkhead:

Primed the flange:

Installed the access panel in the right forward fuselage rib - this is the kit from AirWard.  Match drilling the doubler:

Cut out marked, corners drilled:

Panel cut:

23 MAY 15: Finished access panel, deburring: 5.75 hours

Finished filing of forward fuselage rib for access panel and continued deburring all parts – no pics.

24 MAY 15: Finished deburring, page 28-14 steps 12-13, 28-15 steps 1-4: 6.5 hours

Fabricated the two F-1067C seat floor angles.  Centerline marked:

Final drilled #19 the holes in the F-1067B seat floor covers.  Clecoed and final drilled #40 the holes common between the seat floors, floor attach strips, and seat floor angles:

Deburring always takes longer than I think and never looks like the amount of work that it takes.  This pile is the result of hours of deburring – doesn’t look like that much:

17 MAY 15: Page 27-4 steps 7-8: 4.75 hours

Riveted the WD-1004 nose gear tension fittings, F-1001E-L/R center angles, and nutplates to the F-1048-L/R forward fuselage ribs.  One of the nose gear fittings:

Riveted the left forward rib subassembly and the F-1001G-L gusset to the firewall bulkhead subassembly.  I will leave the right rib off for now.  I ordered the tunnel access panel kit and it will be much easier to install with the rib off.  The bulkhead is pretty much complete:

11 MAY 15: Page 27-4 steps 1-6, debur: 7.75 hours

Final drilled #30 the forward rib subassemblies.  Clecoed the subassemblies and gussets to the firewall bulkhead subassembly:

Spent the rest of the work session doing my favorite thing – deburring…

12 MAY 15: Deburring: 1.75 hours

Finished deburring the parts:

 Got another fine Scotchbrite wheel – you can see how much I use the wheel for deburring:

13 MAY 15: Prekote: 2.5 hours

Prekoted the parts in prep for priming – no pics.

14 MAY 15: Deburring: .75 hour

Deburred the firewall – no pics.

15 MAY 15: Priming, Page 27-2 step 7: 5.25 hours

Primed the batch of firewall parts:

Began to rivet the firewall structure using the back rivet plate:

16 MAY 15: Page 27-2 step 7, pg 27-3 steps 4, 6-7, pg 27-4 steps 6-7: 6.5 hours

Finished riveting the firewall.  This took longer than expected.  It took a while to reposition the back rivet plate and a few rivets had to be bucked because of tight access for the back rivet set.  All riveted except for the center recess:

Dimpled and riveted the nutplates to the F-1015J scat tube support.  Dimpled the forward fuselage ribs. Began to rivet the WD-1004 nose gear tension fittings and F-1001E-L/R center angles to the forward fuselage ribs.  Could squeeze about ½ of them.  Will have to shoot the rest:

Getting pretty crowded!  Hopefully I’ll get the wings and the tailcone to the hangar in the next several weeks:

4 MAY 15: Page 26-6 steps 3, 6-8, pg 26-7 step 3: 4.5 hours

Finished dimpling the baggage ribs.  Riveted the baggage ribs to the fuselage bulkhead:

Riveted the step mounting brackets to the outboard baggage ribs.  Riveted the outboard baggage ribs to the outboard seat ribs and the fuselage bulkhead assembly.  Began to debur, dimple, and countersink the fuse parts and skin.

5-7 MAY 15: Page 26-7 step 3: 5.7 hours

Debured, dimpled, and countersunk the fuse parts and skin.  Had to remove the c-frame arm to get a few of the holes in the center of the bottom skin:

A lot of holes to dimple!

8 MAY 15: Page 27-2 steps 1-4: 2 hours

Final drilled #40, dimpled, and riveted the F-1001K recess holes, enlarged the three control cable holes to 5/8” diameter:

Clecoed all braces and brackets to the firewall:

9 MAY 15: Page 27-2 step 5, pg 26-7 step 4: 7.5 hours

Final drilled all firewall attach braces and brackets.  Riveted the mid and center bottom skins.  Mike came over to help buck rivets.  Just like the wings, he bucked while I got the easy part – shooting.  Unlike the wings, access was easy and we made pretty quick work of a ton of rivets:

Feels good to get a large piece of structure riveted together:

10 MAY 15: Page 27-2 step 6, pg 27-3 steps 1-3, pg 27-4 steps 1-3: 3.75 hours

Disassembled all the firewall parts and countersunk all parts that lay against the web of the firewall.  A bunch of holes to countersink:

Drilled the holes for the F-1051J scat tube support bracket to the F-1048-R forward fuselage rib.  Clecoed the WD-1004, F-1001E-L, and F-1048L together and final drilled #30 all holes common between the parts.  Machine countersunk the F-1039D rudder pedal brace attach holes.

27 APR 15: Debur: 1.25 hours

Deburring my life away – my favorite part of building!!

28 APR 15: Page 26-7 step 1, debur: 4.25 hours

Finished deburring the parts.  Clecoed the F-1077 mid and F-1076 center bottom skins to the ribs and bulkheads – no pics.

29 APR 15: Page 26-7 steps 1-2: 3.2 hours

Finished clecoing the F-1077 mid and F-1076 center bottom skins to the ribs and bulkheads, clecoed the floor stiffeners, final-drilled #40 all holes common between them.  Just a few clecoes!

30 APR 15: Page 26-7 step 2, debur: 4.2 hours

Finished final-drilling and deburred all the holes.

1 MAY 15: Prekote prep, debur: 3.5 hours

Finished deburring the holes in the ribs and Prekoted all parts in prep for priming – no pics.

2 MAY 15: Prekote: 2.5 hours

Primed the baggage floor ribs and bottom skins.