Category Archives: Fuselage

Time: 8 Hours

Today’s task was to finish up the few items that still needed deburring. I then moved on to the big task of dimpling all those holes on the skins. First up I laid out the skins with the plans next to them so that I could mark out the holes that don’t need dimpling with a red marker. That took a little while as there are a bunch of different symbols that tell you what style rivet as well as the length. After I laid out all the holes and their marks I needed to do 2 tasks first. The first was to edge roll on all of the skins. The forward side skins needed the aft edge rolled. The mid side skins needed the aft edge rolled. The aft edge of the bottom skins also needed rolled. This process puts a slight bend in the skin so that when the two skins are riveted the top skin will pull tight and make a tight seal.

The second task was to scuff the insides of the skins that would be visible in the cockpit and rear baggage area. So I masked off the areas and used my small orbital sander with 3M scotch-brite pads which made quick work of it. I also scuffed up the bottom 3/4″ edge of the aft side skin where it will over lap the aft bottom skin. The forward and mid skins got the entire surface scuffed since they will be seen.

I then grabbed the pneumatic squeezer and the DRDT dimpling machine and several dies. I had #8 screw holes, #6 screw holes, 1/8″ and 3/32″ holes to dimple. There was one spot in the mid fuselage bottom skins at the aft end that needed dimpling but they overlap each other and needed to be countersunk instead.

From there I hit every hole with one of the required dies and dimpling tool. It took a while and I used the workbench for some and but the DRDT on the floor for the long aft side skins.

So that was a great 8 hours in the Hangar and got a lot of work done although you may not see it. The skins are now ready for primer and paint. I will start that this weekend and will prep all the other parts for the same. I’m getting so close to assembling the fuselage for the last and final time!

Time: 6 Hours

Now that all the substructure has been final drilled to match the skins all the hikes need to be deburred. The plans have you start with all 6 skin panels, 2 forward, 2 mid and 2 aft skins. That’s a lot of holes to debur since you have to do both the inside and the outside parts of each hole. So with a fully charged electric debur tool I went to work. Not to much to show with this process so I didn’t take any photos. I ran the battery dead before I got halfway done so I had to move on a little while it charged up. The forward skins have 2 reference tabs at the bottom for fitting and they need to be trimmed off at this point.

I also received a few goodies in the mail this week. First up is my Andair fuel valve. These are precision made valves that really make the stock valve that Van’s sends look pretty bad. A lot of builders go this route and there is a lot of documentation showing great installs of this valve.

I also got a gift certificate from the best girl friend ever to Cleveland tools which I used to but a rivet spacer that allows me to evenly space rivet holes when I freestyle build.

The other thing I got was a tail light adapter that will get riveted to the lower part of the rudder and make maintenance easier down the road.

Another item that was delivered was my battery hold down. I want to install the battery in the forward baggage lower area based in my buddy Glenn’s experience with it in the same place. I wanted a sleek yet strong mount that would allow easy battery replacement. Here is what I came up with and will make an attachment plan later this week.

I finished up the deburring of the skins and all other items called out in the plans. I then moved on to the dimpling process. There are a lot of areas that get dimples and some that don’t. I used tape to mask the holes that I don’t want to dimple, these are mainly ones that line up with the longerons as they were countersunk.

I made sure to scuff the items before dimpling them to make it easier later for priming. Not a lot of pictures today but a lot of work done. Another good day in the Hangar.

Time: 6 Hours

There are 201 holes on the upper longeron sides that need countersinking. That’s a lot of holes! Pushing down on the drill to get a countersunk on that many holes has my right shoulder on fire but it has to be done so I power thru it.

I did the right one first and when I was done I deburred all the holes on both sides. On each longeron there are two cut outs needed. One on the very end and one a little forward of that which allows the vertical horizontal stabilizer attach bars to stick up thru. I used a combo of my dremel, files and sandpaper to get the fit right in the first cut.

After cleaning up the right side I moved on to the left. It took me about three hours to finish up both sides. From there I moved on to all of the loose parts and deburring everyone of their holes. I got all except a few arm rest parts deburred and will get them tomorrow. I did 6 hours of actual work throughout the day, as I took lots of breaks to give my shoulder a rest. I’m just glad to have the countersinking done on all of those longeron holes!

Time: 6 Hours

Back at the big task of countersinking all these parts. I started with center section box plate that was left clecko’d to the bulkheads.

The spacers between the cockpit rail and seat back roll bars get countersunk for the 1/8″ rivets as well as the #8 screws.

The lower longerons also get the #8 countersinks.

The pile is adding up of parts that got countersunk.

Next up were the lower and middle aft longerons.

On the aft middle longerons they start from the bulkhead just aft of the passenger seat and run to the tail. The forward end protrudes thru the bulkhead just a little right at the aft end of the passengers arm rests. On the left side it ends up covered up with a flap control arm cover (which is a mod I will be doing) but the right is exposed. Some after seat makers also make an arm rest pad to match your seats and this can sometimes interfere with it according to my buddy Glen. So I trimmed this portion off to avoid any problems.

The last big “countersinking” items are the two upper longerons. These are long and have a lot of holes. To start you go to the ones on the top flange that mate with the cockpit rails. There are 2 holes that will get match drilled with the rails that the canopy slides in and don’t get countersunk.

Man these things are long and hard to manipulate in the Hangar.

I finished up all those holes for the rails and called it a day. I cleaned up and organized al the parts that I had out today. I forgot to mention that as I finished up drilling a part I would debur all the remaining holes and edges if needed. This allowed me to put the parts in a pile ready for scuffing, primer and paint. Overall today I countersunk 384 holes! But have all the side holes in the upper longerons left to do! I’m guessing these would go a little faster if my OCD wasn’t so bad that I have to clean up all the drill shavings up after each piece with the vacuum! I hate working in a dirty workspace! My goal is to finish up the longerons tomorrow so I can get to work on the skins and their dimpling.