Tonight I riveted the seatbelt lugs together, then clecoed them to the fuselage. I had to clean and oil my hand squeezer. It’s been so long since I used it!
I didn’t have too many problems once I had the right yoke on the squeezer, and fiddled around to find the right angles.
Tonight I started working on the shoulder harness seatbelt lugs. I separated, deburred, countersunk and then primed the few parts.
I started work on a rotisserie mount for the firewall. The mount will support the forward end of the fuselage, connecting the firewall to an engine stand. The stand allows the whole fuselage assembly to rotate so I can more easily work on the fuselage.
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.
Last night and tonight I worked on the air vents, installing them in the cockpit tonight.
The vents (SV-6) arrived from Vans on Friday, so I got to work positioning, match drilling, and trimming the parts per the plans.
I installed some aluminum honeycomb in the vent to stop any large insects or other critters from getting access through the vent shaft. This worked out ok, and I feel slightly better knowing there is something to act as a barrier.
Tonight I filled some unnecessary nutplate holes with rivets, in the bottom of the fuselage. I had been puzzling over how to river these, and decided to back river them. That worked ok, except for one right by the spar, where I can’t get in snugly enough with the rivet gun to rivet straight. The ribs and spar flanges get in the way. I’m thinking I’ll pop rivet these, vs risking damage to the spar.
The nutplates are for the tricycle version, and hold the gear leg fairings.
Tonight I trimmed and sanded the air vents, and separated and deburred the aluminum brackets. I found scotch-brite worked best to scuff the plastic.
I can’t do more on this until the eyeball vents arrive from Vans, and I’m not sure on their ETA right now.
I finished reviewing all of the Quickbuild sections today. I didn’t find anything wrong, just some missing torque seal on a couple of bolts under the roll bar bottom bracket. I noted it down and will torque and seal them
I installed a couple of extra shop lights in the garage to improve the lighting situation. It’s already excellent, but I had the extra lights and there were a couple of slightly darker spots. Now it’s very bright!
The next step is installing the cabin air vents, so I found the parts, and then ordered a few things I needed. Vans doesn’t sell the plastic ball vents anymore, so I bought the aluminum vents instead. They are apparently far superior, with a better seal. They are $140 each, so I’m expecting them to be great! I also ordered some more silicone adhesive, my existing tube is old and has gone off.