Also I went through the plans several times to make sure I wasn't missing something important. Once everything is riveted together it will be difficult to drill holes for wiring or fuel/vent lines or install nutplates in certain locations. One builder log I ran into suggested drilling the forward bolt holes for the gear weldments - an idea I adopted since there is absolutely no way to drill them easily otherwise - basically you'd be drilling "blind" due to the location of the 902 forward bulkhead.
What I did was install the gear weldments using some undersize bolts I made for attaching the wing spars.
Once the weldment is in place (leaving out the 902 bulkhead), you then back drill through the gear web, longeron and bottom skin, then countersink it from the outside (special countersunk head bolts are used for the forward attach point)
What I did was install the gear weldments using some undersize bolts I made for attaching the wing spars.
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| From Fuselage |
Once the weldment is in place (leaving out the 902 bulkhead), you then back drill through the gear web, longeron and bottom skin, then countersink it from the outside (special countersunk head bolts are used for the forward attach point)
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| From Fuselage |
Another thing I did this week (can't believe it took me this long to think of it) was to organize the plans a bit better. For the empennage and wings there were only 8 or 9 sheets to flip through. The fuselage has several dozen and trying to find the one you want when you need it can be a big time waster.
I finally just created a plans index using post it notes numbered and taped to each page then created a master index sheet and put it on my plan stand, with the numbers aligned with the tabs. *Huge* time saver. Later I made a better index - this hand written one is just to get the spacing right.
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| From Fuselage |
One other tool that I use a lot that folks don't always seem to know about is a mysteriously drilled 1/8" plate that Van's gives you. It's a bolt length and size gauge. Thought I'd throw in a pic in case someone doesn't know what it is. I primed mine when testing primers, then just numbered everything to make it easier to read. I use it a lot to determine the correct size and length bolt.
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| From Fuselage |
Here's a small stack of the parts after deburring/countersinking/scuffing and just prior to priming.
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| From Fuselage |
One of the other chores prior to dimpling is to remove the protective vinyl from the skins. I leave it on as long as possible to protect the skin, but it has to come off prior to dimpling or the dimple depth won't be correct. The technique is to melt the plastic with a soldering iron or similar (I have a cheap woodburning tool) and just remove a strip over the rivet line. The inside gets removed so you can prime.
Here I'm peeling up the strips of plastic over the rows where rivets go after I'm done melting the plastic.
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| From Fuselage |
Dimpling one of the side skins. You can tell from the dullness it's been scuffed up so it will take the primer when I prime it later. I was waiting for a warmer day at this point cause the highs had barely been out of the 30's. Bit too cool for priming with an epoxy primer.
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| From Fuselage |
