Tonight I installed the F-01406 bulkhead. This was a quick and fairly easy job, one side at a time I removed clecos and installed the bulkhead pieces per the plans, and then clecoed it back together. I clecoed almost every hole to get this joint as strong as possible before I move the fuselage onto a rotisserie for riveting.
With help from my friend Simon, we were able to attach the aft and forward sections of the fuselage today! It’s amazing to see the size of the fuselage now, it is now so big that I can’t possibly move it by myself.
We didn’t get too far, we just clecoed together the parts, but they will stay together now for good. Everything went smoothly, and the holes lined up perfectly without the need to do any real finessing. I was surprised at how easily it all came together, just following the instructions. The only snag we encountered were a couple of temporary rivets that I had missed. Once we removed those, everything was great.
Tomorrow I’m planning to attach the two halves of the fuselage. This will be a big step, and it’s exciting to be at this point! My friend Simon is coming over to help me with the alignment of the parts which I’ve heard can be tricky.
Tonight I got ready for that step by rearranging the garage, and completing a few final tasks. I removed the temporary rivets holding the skins and ribs of the forward fuselage, along the trailing edge. I also bent two of the flanges of the aft fuse per the plans, and set up some safety straps, suspended from the rafters.
Today I dimpled, drilled, and test fit the baggage compartment aft wall bulkhead. Dimpling was tricky in places due to the flange shapes, but I managed with my hand squeezer and narrow dimple dies. I step drilled a systems hole, and then started test fitting the bulkhead. I’ll need to flute the flanges, but ran out of time tonight to finish.
I’ve done about as much as I can on the wings before I have a tech inspection, so I started on the fuselage tonight. There are a few rivets I need to set, but I went out of order and started work deburring the bulkhead that forms the back of the baggage area. I decided to get these parts ready to prime, so I can prime the aileron pushrods and these parts together. Not much to report; I finished deburring two of the three parts.
