Today was one of those momentous days. After logging over 40 hours of work on the baggage door, I finished the installation! (Well, mostly...)

1. The baggage door didn't fit very well last night, once I had installed the bottom row of rivets on the inside skin. So today, I removed the door and drilled out the bottom row of rivets. I replaced the door back on the fuselage, and it fit great once again. I decided to leave those 7 rivets out for now, and get the rest of the door-fitting done. My plan, once it's done, is to bond the bottom of the inner skin to the door rib using some super-duper adhesive, fill in the gaps with filler, then sand it and paint it. The door is not structural, and it's actually plenty rigid with these rivets missing, but I'll make it look cosmetically good.

2. Now that the door fit well, I built up about 1/8" of masking tape on the inside of the firewall and front side of the avionics bulkhead, in the general location where the locking pins will go.

3. I put the door back on, duct-taped it tightly closed, and actuated the door lock a few times to make an impression of the locking pins into the tape.

4. Carefully marked the center of the impressions, then center-punched them and drilled pilot holes with a #40 drill bit.

5. Removed the tape and used a step-drill to open up the holes in the bulkheads to 5/16".

6. Sanded down the left nylon block to fit the available space, using a belt-sander with #60 grit sandpaper. Located and pre-drilled two #30 mounting holes in each nylon block.

7. Bolted the blocks to the bulkheads with AN5 bolts and nuts.

8. Used the nylon blocks as drill guides to drill #30 holes through the bulkheads. Up-sized all 4 mounting holes to #8.

9. Used long-depth clecoes to hold the blocks in position. Removed the AN5 bolts.

10. Re-fitted the door and tested the fit. The pins were really tight, and I wasn't able to fully lock the door, so I used a small amount of grease on the pins and the nylon blocks. This time, I was able to get the door locked!

11. Removed the door and the nylon blocks. Deburred the bulkhead holes, countersunk the mounting holes in the blocks, and chamfered the edges of the pin holes.

12. Re-installed the blocks, using the final hardware (AN365 nylocs).

13. Re-fitted the door, and all is well. The door closes really nicely, and generally fits really well. I'll need to do a small amount of bending on the aft lower corner of the door, and I will need to trim the edges of the door once the cowling is fitted.