After some time of traveling in Arizona and Utah, I am excited to continue working on the plane.
I started by leveling (ah it was perfect!), then drilling and prepping the fuselage deck.
Then I proceeded with the side rails: drilling, fitting and prepping for riveting
We assembled and drilled the mid fuselage. It came together quickly. It is cool to see the Fuselage parts coming together:
Riveted the aft fuselage:
Disassembled the aft fuselage, deburred, dimpled, primed, then assembled it back for riveting and checked alignment again:
Assembled the Aft Fuselage, checked alignment, and drilled:
Assembled and riveted some sub component of the aft fuselage
We tackled the rest of the bulkhead, we prepped all the parts and moved on to riveting. We riveted all of them, except for 706.
We prepped and riveted bulkhead 705. All went well, except for one bracket that did not align well. So, I just ordered a new one.
We finished riveting bulkhead 704. We riveted all the brackets and the side sections. Then we looked up and gathered all the hardware. Bulkhead 704 is done for the time being.
Then I did a little preview into bulkhead 705, so I gathered all the parts.
Next we started working on the bulkhead. First drilling holes for the bushings. Then drilling the center sections to the sides. Afterwards, fabricating the control brackets and drilling them.
Next weekend, we primed the control brackets and fitted the control sticks. Then we attached the platenuts. Afterwards we worked on the cover ribs. The center bushing holes ended up a bit larger, 9/16 instead of 7/16, so I am most likely redoing those ribs after checking with Vans.
We started working on the fuselage. The first part is the firewall. Which is made from stainless steel. It had very sharp edges, so we needed to be very careful in smoothing the edges. Then we prepped the firewall and all the stiffeners that attaches to it, matched drilled, deburred, dimpled and counter sink as needed.
The next weekend, we primed and riveted all the parts, except for the aux fuel pump doubler. We don’t need this part for fuel injected engines. Also, the firewall recess was not riveted for the time being, so that we have access.
Final touch-ups on the wings.
We drilled the inboard bracket for the flap hinge, drove the hinge through the hole and bent the flap hinge. This finalized the flap installation.
We drilled the wing tips. We were thinking of going all the way to installing all the platenuts, but after consulting with Vans, they suggested waiting on the platenuts until attaching the wings to the fuselage. This way, I will be able to get a better alignment of the wing tips with the neutral position.
Then we installed all the access plates. The wings are complete for the time being
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