Dimpled & installed nutplates on the flanges for the fwd access panels. I elected to dimple for these nutplates vs. using oops rivets to countersink. I can see that at the rate I'm using nutplates, I'll run out of oops rivets if I keep using them everywhere and I don't want to have to buy more.

Having said that, it looks like you could knock this simple little thing out in about 5 minutes, but it takes a while to dimple the screw holes to #8, the nut plate holes for a -3, and then dimple and install 32 nutplates.

Next up, I riveted the F-7108B angle and the F-7109 plate to the F-7108A center rib.

Just a heads up for whoever is reading this, but I followed the instructions here and it was a major pain. I believe there's an easier way to do this.

Heres the situation: during the initial assembly, it' super easy to put this together because you can cleco in the F-705 sub panel, then drop the big end of the center rib down into the slot, then slide the rib fwd until the big end is at the firewall. you can then slide the F-7108B angle in from the aft, epee peezy.

When it comes to final assy, the instructions have you rivet this all together on the bench, at this point the horizontal leg of F-7108B and the lower flange of the rib are not parallel, so they won't easily slide into the horizontal slots on the center bulkhead. The instructions literally say "bend the center bulkhead until you can slide it together, the guy who designed it swears it's possible"

I fought with this for about 20 minutes, thinking there must be some way that I could flex it that I wasn't thinking of that would make it easier, but it just wasn't working. I was afraid that I was eventually going to crack or permanently deform the center bulkhead, so I got a cup of coffee and stared at it for a while, then enlarged the horizontal slots by about 1/4" each. I then sat on the floor with it held between my knees and was able to flex the two sides of the bulkhead in opposite directions enough that I could insert the assy at a weird angle and get it in place, then I clecoed the whole dangly mess into the airplane all at once.

If I had it to do over, I would assemble it in the same order I put it together for match drilling and just rivet it together on the airplane.

Once it was in the plane, I realized there were 3 rivets I should have left out because they are common to the F-7103C angle as well, so I drilled those out and clecoed that angle in place. That whole contraption fits together like one of those bent wire puzzles I used to play with as a kid.

Clecoed the instrument panel in place, and installed the seats for fun. Now it's starting to look like an actual cockpit!

I had a couple of hours left in my day, and in looking around for a 2 hour project, I landed on installing the NACA vents. The instructions call for gluing them in place with either proseal or RVT, but also mention that you can throw a few rivets in there for a belt & suspenders approach.

Looking at build logs online, I've seen guys use clamps and magnets and all sorts of innovative solutions to clamp these in place while the sealer is drying so they don't have any rivets. Seems like a lot of work for not much return unless you have oshkosh trophy aspirations. The whole plane is put together with rivets, so what's the big deal with sticking a few in here? Plus, If they ever have to come out for some reason, it's a lot easier to drill out a few pop rivets and deal with some light weight RTV that to unstick something that's glued together with pro seal.

Having said all that, I carefully laid out and drilled #40 a rivet pattern that ensured 5/16" edge distance on the plastic flange of the vent, then back drilled the vent through the skin. I still need to dimple, fabricate something to go behind the flange so the pop rivets don't pull through etc. but I think they are going to look pretty nice when done.