Time: 2 Hours
I worked on the baggage door, which is the last building task before I get to mate the wings to the fuselage, yesterday. Pretty simple task of demurring all the edges and holes of the top and bottom skin as well as all the notches of the two side ribs. You start with the locking mechanism that sends two rods outboard of the lock that will catch two plastic blocks on the baggage door opening. However they don’t supply the lock and you need to buy that separately from any source you want so I skipped this step for now. Another note on the baggage door is after reading a lot of builders blogs and talking to my buddy Glenn I understand that the final figment of the door to the fuselage is a real pain in the ass! It seems that nobody gets a good fit if you proceed with the plans at this stage. So what I will be doing is following their advise and waiting until the fuselage is finished before attempting to finish the door. The plan will be to rivet the exterior skin of the door first then attach the door to the fuselage and strap it down with ratchet straps so that all the edges line up perfectly. Then from inside the fuselage up through the removed baggage floor I will blind rivet the bottom skin hopefully holding the shape needed for a good fit. So for now I’m done with the door until I get a lock from Van’s and build that mechanism. If you can’t handle it yourself, automotive locksmith Sacramento will provide expert service.
I need to do a little more research on weather to drill the hinge that will attach at the top now or latter with this new plan of attack.
