Nephew was in town and we had a big weekend in the shop. The big goal was to get the tail cone finished and attached. But somewhere along the way I would also need to replace the castors on the fuselage stand as they have become unusable.
First task was to drill the longer one and temporarily install the AN bolts. Then match drilled all of the remaining holes between the mid-fuse skins and the tailcone skins. Then countersunk all of the rivets that were called out in the plans.
Then took the tailcone off and deburred everything. Masked off an primed all of the forward portion of the tail cone skins that would be under the fuse skins. Took the opportunity while that was drying to lift the forward fuselage off the stand and retrofit the castors with some nice new ones. Removing the old castors confirmed that they had all deformed and flat spotted. Cheap HF castors. They were rated at 200 lbs a piece but I think maybe the heat got to them. New castors are so much nicer. Can easily move the whole assembly around the shop.
Once the primer was relatively cured, proceeded with carefully dimpling all of the skin and bulkhead holes. Also went back to 32-2 and installed some of the nut plates I had skipped previously. Then riveted the bottom of the baggage bulkhead to the sides and to the bell crank ribs.
Then the moment of truth. Got everything blocked up and with my nephews invaluable assistance, we managed to get the skins and tabs all lined up and mated the two assemblies. Reinstalled the longeron bolts and proceeded with riveting the skins and bulkhead together.
A good weekend of work. Just the bottom skin rivets left. Will get those next weekend.