Aug 05, 2023     29-17, 18, & 23: Left side skin finish up - (7.0 hours)       Category: 29: Fuse Skins

Got a lot done on the left skin today despite the heat. Got my loyal riveting partner to help rivet the lower forward fuse channel and then got her to get the underside rivets on the front. Came out really good and flush.

With those rivets in place, I was able to proceed with installing the pilot side floor pan.

8/6: Finished up the last of the bottom ri ets this morning. Then installed the last forward fuselage rib. Cleaned everything up and installed a few of the cover plates just to keep dust and FOD out.

With that, this section is finally done. 88 hrs and 3 months.

  Aug 04, 2023     29-18: Right front skin rework - (1.5 hours)       Category: 29: Fuse Skins

After no doing much work the last month, but spending a lot of time just staring at the fuselage in the garage, I noticed the right front skin was not sitting as tightly as I'd like against the C channel. I must have not been holding the rivet gun perpendicular to the skin. Decided to drill them out and redo them. I was actually really proud of how good a job I did drilling them out - I'm a real builder now. Dozens of nice little rivet head donuts on my 3/32" punch. Got it re-rivetted and it is much better now. Glad I re-did it.

  Aug 04, 2023     29-21 & 22 Left gear mount bracket - (2.5 hours)       Category: 29: Fuse Skins

Braved the heat a bit today and made some progress on the left gear leg mount. First rivetted the doubler plate to the side skins. Then installed all of the AN hardware and torqued. Got Ben to help again with the tough to reach nuts.

  Jul 16, 2023     29-21: Left side landing gear mount - (1.5 hours)       Category: 29: Fuse Skins

Hit a dead end on the step so started work on the left side landing gear mount. As with the right side, the mount was tight in the hole so took the dremel to it to get a little clearance. It dropped in much better than the right side after a little work. Installed the temporary bolts and cleco'd the double and drill jigs in place. That's enough for today.

  Jul 15, 2023     29-18, 20 & 22: Finishing up right side - (5 hours)       Category: 29: Fuse Skins

Finally got all the rivets on the right side done. Then moved on to installing the floor pan on the right side. Carefully removed all debris and vacuumed everything well before sealing it up. Floor slipped into place fairly easy and was able to align all the holes with clecos. Starting using the manually rivet puller then used my pneumatic one. The pneumatic one sprays oil all over the place though so went back to manual. Got tired of that and decided to just deal with the oil spray. Then the pneumatic one stopped working - not sure what's wrong with it. Back to manual. Took a long time to get them all pulled.

7/16: got the last side rib riveted in place. The right side of Section 29 is done. This section is taking forever.

Just noticed that at some point in the past week I passed 1000 hours.

  Jul 08, 2023     29-21: Right landing gear mount - (4.0 hours)       Category: 29: Fuse Skins

This is a pain. First I had to work to hike in the bottom skin a bit with the dremel to try to get the landing gear bracket to fit. Then it still took a good amount of coercing with a mallet to get it in place. The. Try to temporarily install enough bolts before I match drill the remaining holes. Could get those to line up. Finally ground the threads off an AN4 bolt and used it as a drift pin and got it started. Then was able to install the other bolts. Very difficult to get my hand between the spars to install the nuts but finally figured how to reach the from the end. Got the hardware all temporarily snugged up. It does seem that the AN4-14s are too short. [figured this out - I was using the wrong nuts. Too bad I already ordered new bolts.]

Got the drill templates cleco'd in place and match drilled the #30 holes, then upsized to 1/4”. Now I need to take it all back apart. Not looking forward to it.

7/9: was able to remove the aluminum doubler and get it deburred. And was able to get the steel weldment deburred in place. I gave up on trying to remove it. Was able to rivet the skin diuble in place with the weldment in place. Then installed all the bolts, with the correct nuts, and tightened. Needed someone with little hands to get a wrench in the in board bottom nuts.

Right gear mount is done. Hopefully the left one goes a little more smoothly, but this really wasn't bad.

  Jul 06, 2023     29-18: Back at the side skins - (3.5 hours)       Category: 29: Fuse Skins

Got back at the side skins after vacation. Got the right side cabin opening piece riveted in. Got some of the rivets along the front lower channel taped in place ready for my rivet partner this weekend.

Played with the landing gear mount a bit. It doesn't fit.

7/9: Got the wife to help rivet the right rear quarter where it wraps underneath. There was a bit of a gap in the skins with the cleco's in place (~3/16" max). I was worried it wouldn't easily pull tight when we rivetted it, but it came out great.

  Jun 29, 2023     29: Wing root priming - (3.5 hours)       Category: 29: Fuse Skins

Looking ahead I can see that the new gear reinforcement plates go on the outside of the skin within the wing root area. I had already primed the reinforcement plates, but thought I should prime the outside of the skins. Might as well just prime everything within the shadow of the wing.

Masked everything off dust to the outside of the faring attach angles and prepped and primed. Felt like good masking and painting practice for doing the interior.


Also primed the tunnel access parts.

  Jun 23, 2023     29-18: Right side skin riveting - (8.0 hours)       Category: 29: Fuse Skins

Back at the fuse side skins a bit this evening. It was hot in the garage, but I got most of the right forward skin done.

6/25: Worked through the heat and got a good amount of riveting done this weekend. All of the solo work on the right side is complete including the rear passenger vent. The right side is now to the same state as the left side. Still need a partner to get the bottom wrap around a front and back.

  Jun 18, 2023     29-18: Left side skins - (3.5 hours)       Category: 29: Fuse Skins

Made some good progress on skins today. Got the left side done with the exception of the bottoms.

Riveted the left side center fuse cover in place lace.

Then countersunk the holes for the rear passenger vent and riveted the doubler and brackets in place.

Started on the right side skin rivets but didn't get far.

  Jun 11, 2023     29-17: Side skin riveting - (3.0 hours)       Category: 29: Fuse Skins

Started on the left side skin. Got most of the left front done except for the lower ones that I'll need some help with. Put a cherry rivet in the very forward longeron hole. No way to get on it buried up behind the bracket.

Moved on the mid-fuse skin and got most of the footwell area done. Had to remove the temporary spar bolts to get to some of the rivets. Used my swivel set for pretty much the first time ever. Was able to wedge in tight against the spar to get the few that were right up against it.

  Jun 05, 2023     29-16: Longeron and Fwd Fuse riveting - (5.5 hours)       Category: 29: Fuse Skins

Woke up early this morning and started on riveting the longerons. Got the rear seat brackets and baggage door seal angles all riveted in place. Had to redo a couple because I can't follow instructions.

6/7: getting just a few rivets here and there this week on the fwd fuse to firewall brackets.

6/8: got the remaining tough rivets on the firewall brackets. Got the forward longerons riveted to the front gusset.

6/9: cleco'd front skins in place. Applied 3M fire stop sealant to firewall flanges. Backriveted the baggage area angles to the mid-fuse skins and then cleco'd them to the skeleton. This page is finally done.

  Jun 04, 2023     29-16 & 29-18: Bucking bar modification and rear vents - (5.0 hours)       Category: 29: Fuse Skins

Spent most of the day today trying to cut the taper on to the end of the empennage bucking bar. Using my pneumatic angle grinder, it took forever. Eventually got it cut through.

While the compressor was catching up, I assembled the rear passenger vents. Those were pretty easy.

6/12: After all that effort to cut the bucking bar, I don't even think I'll hardly use it. Small tungsten bar works fine.

  May 29, 2023     29-15: Priming and dimpling - (8.5 hours)       Category: 29: Fuse Skins

Squeezed in a little priming time at the end of our holiday weekend. Got all of the forward fuselage parts primed with Ekopoxy.

6/2: did another small batch of ekopoxy and got some miscellaneous parts like rear seat vents and rudder pedals. Had to do a lot of prep and deburred going before painting. Then primed the rear fuselage parts with ekoprime. Then dimpled the skins.

Not many photos to show for my work.

  May 25, 2023     29-14: Rework - (3.5 hours)       Category: 29: Fuse Skins

Slow going this week but got back to about where I was with new parts and adequate edge distances.

Got the old firewall brackets drilled out and removed. Installed new brackets and redrilled to the side channels. Paid more attention to the alignment this time and edge distances are all good.

Twisted the new lower fuse channel on the right side and test fit with the skins in place. Still very difficult to get good edge distance. Opted to match drill the floor pan to the channel without the skin in place with minimal edge distance with the hope that it will pull in to place when riveting. Still not feeling great about the edge distance of that aft most hole on either side so opted to add an additional river between the last two. The floor pan attachment is not structural, but I'll feel better with an extra rivet.

  May 15, 2023     29-13: Deburring and Countersinking - (3.0 hours) Category: 29: Fuse Skins

Spent a little time this evening just continuing to disassemble and started deburring the various parts. Realized that I also have a tight edge distance on an F-1041 stringer from drilled the floor pans. It's not really structural but it's no good. Ordered another.

8/16: Proceeded to countersink the longerons and bulkheads on the right side.

8/17: Left side longerons and bulkheads countersunk. Van's parts shipped so should be able to get the front end fixed up soon.

Purchases: Vans - F-1041-R

  May 13, 2023     29-12 thru 14: Fwd Fuse ribs and longerons - (6.5 hours)       Category: 29: Fuse Skins

A lot of assembly and disassembly to get skins aligned and ribs installed. Installed floor pans, hopefully permanently, and got entire assembly cleco'd together. Then match drilled #40 holes on the outside of the steel engine mount brackets. Then match drilled the longerons. Started to match drill the #30's on the top and bottom of the engine mount brackets. People have trouble with the edge distance on these, so I did my best to pull them in tight. Still, you're drilling blind and I won't know if it's ok until I take it all apart.

Drilled the rudder block mounts in the longeron using the template supplied.

5/14: Finished match drilling the steel engine mount brackets today then started to disassemble everything, The moment of truth for the engine mount brackets. The bottom ones look good, but the top right is a little tight on edge distance. I would let it go based on what I've read online from other folks that had shy edge distance. Then revealed the top left and it has literally zero edge distance in the last hole. The hole clipped the edge - it's trashed.

If I'm going to replace the top left, might as well replace the top right too. Ordered two new brackets. I since reread the recommendations from others to install and tighten the engine mount bolts to better pull them into alignment. We'll do that next time.

Purchases: Vans - new WD-1002 L and R.

  May 09, 2023     29-9: Longeron Drilling Issue - (4.0 hours)       Category: 29: Fuse Skins

I got the F-1046 longerons clamped in place and ready to match drill the holes from F-1005E gussets. It is a bit awkward to access with the skin in place and had to use a 90 degree drill to get to it from the bottom. The very first hole I drilled in the left longeron came up through the longeron and I could tell the edge distance was no good - measured at about 3/16" to centerline. Maybe the drill was not perfectly perpendicular to the part - hard to tell since I was drilling somewhat blind from the bottom. Proceeded to drill the remaining holes and they seemed better, but still a little less than ideal edge distance - was measuring about 7/32" from edge to centerline of hole. That's a little less than 2 diameters. What is going on here? When I measure from the inside edge of the skin to the holes in the gusset plate, I get about 17/32". It's a 3/4" angle, so that leave 7/32" edge distance. I looked at some of the other holes along the longeron and some of those are also about 7/32", and those were drilled with the template. The left one is definitely trashed, but the right might be ok - seems about the same as some of the other holes.

I sent a note to Van's to be sure I've got this right before I mess up one of the long F-1013 Longerons. In the meantime, I was able to source some 3/4x3/4x1/8 6061-T6 aluminum angle locally at Metal4U. $20 for two 5' long sticks.

Already got the new left longeron bent to the template and ready to match drill again.

5/11: warm muggy night, a sign of the months to come. But I got the longerons redrilled and they came out much better. I measured and drew a line 1/4” offset from the holes on the gusset and used that line to align the longeron. Turns out the bulkhead that held the gusset could twist a little and must have out of alignment the first time. With my marks lined up I drilled it with the air drill from below. Perfect.

Proceeded to match drill all the #40 holes from the mid fuse skins to both longerons.

Purchases: Metal4U - Aluminum angle stock

  May 06, 2023     29-2 thru 29-7 & 29-10: Longeron and side skin bends - (6.5 hours)       Category: 29: Fuse Skins

Trimmed the mid fuse longerons from angle stock. Bent them to match the template. Then match drilled them to the template. Then cut the two different main longerons to lengths per plan. Marked the various bend and twist marks and bent to match the template. Match drilled longerons to the template. All in all this was not a hard task but did take a little time to get it right.

Cleaned off one of the benches and got prepared to bend the skin. Cut and trimmed the assembly angles and clamped the skin down to the board. Had to run out to the storage unit to retrieve the baggage bulkhead form the tail cone assembly.

5/7: started the side skin bends. Got through the rear skins pretty easily. The bending block was sliding a little bit so I put the screw through the flap torque tube hole and that held it in place well. Did the first one to where I thought would be good but test fit it and it needed more. Ended up bending to more like 70 degrees, not the 60 degrees the manual shows. Final result was really good.

Then tried the front skins. A little more difficult because the assembly angle done have clecos to hold them in place, just clamps. Started to bend the skin and the clamps slipped which put some dings in the first skin. Used a piece of masking tape to give a little more grip. That seemed to work a little better but still was precarious. Overall not perfect, but got passable results on all four skins. Pretty cool to have them all cleco'd in place.

Proceeded with fabrication of the baggage door stiffener angles and cleco'd the seat back brace and baggage opening angles in place.

Did some late-night shopping looking ahead at what I will need in the next few months.

Purchases: Airward Tunnel Access Panel, Andair Fuel Valve, TCW Step Bushings

  Apr 30, 2023     29-3: Side skin bending block - (2.5 hours)       Category: 29: Fuse Skins

It took two tries but finally got a bending block cut that I'm happy with. Tried to cut in my band saw but it wanted nothing to do with cutting the 2x4 on end. I don't have a table saw so tried to make do with a skillsaw. First attemp was a good proof of concept but I needed to make some adjustments to keep the miter cut from getting all the way into the edge. I figure the angle doesn't need to be perfect but you do want the edge as straight as possible. Second attemp was better and strategically placed my cuts in a way that always allowed me to run the skillsaw on a flat edge. Then had to finish off the final cuts with a hand saw. I think it will do.