1. Un-clecoed part of the baggage door, and pre-bent the bottom edge of the skin so it will lay more flat to the fuselage. Also massaged some of the rib flanges for a better fit.
2. Begin getting a good fit on the door by trimming off almost 1/4 inch from the top end, so the hinge eyelets will have enough room. Block-sanded the top edge smooth.
3. Trimmed a thin wedge (about 1 mm maximum) from the top corners of the door so it will lay flat with the fuselage skin.
4. Spent a bunch of time analyzing how I can get the door to lay flat while also being equidistant from the skins on each side. I've known for a long time there is a slight twist my firewall, which in turn profoundly affects the fit of the door, especially at the lower portion. I decided to bring the firewall back into line by force. My first tactic was to hold the firewall in the proper position while drilling the remaining skin/Skybolt holes to #30 size. This took out about 3/4 of the alignment problem. I will use #30 “Oops” rivets in these holes.
I think I can take care of the remaining alignment problem by using the cowling itself to apply a bit of aft pressure on the firewall. That will depend on me drilling the Skybolt fastener holes in the correct location later.
5. Re-bent one of the tabs at the end of a door rib, then filed off a bit of material from the angle to get a better fit for the hinge attach angle. Clamped the angle, spacer and hinge to the door, then taped them in place with duct tape to check the general fit and hinge alignment. The door seems like it will sit pretty flat against the fuselage at this point, but I won't know for sure until I start cleocoing and riveting.
6. Drilled and clecoed the hinge, spacer and angle to the door. Checked the fit. After some little tweaks, it still fits well!
7. Marked the left edge of the door, then block-sanded it a bit to further improve the fit.
8. Added a thin shim under the right side of the door hinge to allow the hinge pin to slide in and out better.
9. Disassembled the hinge, spacer, angle and shim. Deburred all. Reassembled with clecoes and checked the fit again.
10. Disassembled everything again. Countersunk the angle and dimpled the skin. Reassembled and riveted the hinge to the door.