I got the forward baggage bay door locking pin receptacles mounting holes drilled earlier in the week. Today I tweaked the edges of the door outer skin a bit to try to improve the fit to the fuselage. It is as good as I can get it without acquiring a metal shrinker. I need to get some longer mounting screws, then I can mount the door pin receptacles for good.

I did several short riveting sessions this week, to do all the forward skin rivets that I could reach by myself. This morning Jim, a coworker, came over to man the rivet gun so we could get the rivets that I needed help for. There were six rivets that I had expected to do that I wasn't able to get a bucking bar on. So, I will drill the holes out to 1/8" and use CherryMax CR3214-4-4 blind rivets. These rivets have 1/8" diameter bodies, but the heads (and thus the required dimple) are the same size as 3/32" rivets. This is in addition to the ones inside the top of the landing gear boxes, which I had dimpled for 1/8" CR3212-4-4 CherryMax rivets.

The rivets that hold the hinge for the forward baggage bay posed a particular challenge. I thought I could get them with my squeezer, but there wasn't room to get the yoke in there. I used to have a "no hole" yoke that would have worked, but the guy who bought my pneumatic squeezer wanted it, so I sold it to him.

I pulled out the Rube Goldberg tool I had made to help rivet the nutplates on the edges of floor (a mod - not part of Van's design). There wasn't room to get a squeezer on those rivets, so I got some scrap steel bars, drilled holes to take rivet dies, and put the squeezer on the bars to squeeze the ends together. It worked quite well.

I reinserted several switches that I had removed to provide access to rivets, and riveted the channels on that bridge the forward and aft portions of the F-804 bulkhead.

I don't have those CherryMax rivets yet, but they can be done anytime. I've got two more rivets I need to do at the front corners of the skin. The engine mount limits access to squeeze those rivets, so I'll probably have to pull out the rivet gun for those.

It still amazes me how much longer things can take than you expect. Way back in late June I thought I was almost ready to start riveting the upper forward skin on. I could think of three things that I needed to do first, then I could do that skin. Then I did a detailed inspection of the forward fuselage area, looking for things that either had to be completed before I riveted that skin in place, or things that would be much easier to do before putting that skin on. I came up with a list of about a dozen things that I should do before riveting the skin.

I started working down that list, then I decided to add a Narco 122D as a second independent navigation aid. Then I discovered an annunciator light problem that I should fix before putting the skin on. And I kept my eyes open as I worked, and kept on finding more things that I needed to correct before I closed off access to that area.

On Friday, I thought I would be ready to start riveting that skin on Saturday morning. Then I spied two more problems that needed sorting out (brake lines and a wire bundle that were chafing on a bulkhead corner.

This morning I thought I was finally ready to go, and I clecoed the skin in place. I was all ready to start riveting when I realized that it would be difficult to get the canopy bow in place once the skin was attached. I grabbed the canopy bow to see if it could be manoeuvred in place - not a chance. So, the skin had to come off, I had to prime the little pieces that attach the skin to the aft face of the canopy bow, bolt the canopy bow in place, torque all the bolts, rivet those little pieces onto the aft edge of the skin, then cleco it all back again.

This evening I finally started riveting the skin in place. I've only got about 30% of the rivets in, but it is going well so far. I'll do all the ones I can reach, then entice Bruce, a local RV-3 builder to come help me get the rest.

The instrument panel is screwed in place, as other builders have found that if you don't do that you will have problems getting it in later. Apparently the stress of riveting causes things to shift a bit, and the instrument panel will no longer line with the holes that it screws to. But, if you have it screwed in place when you rivet, it holds things in place.

The four "round dial" engine instruments are laying wrapped up in some foam to protect them from the vibration from the rivet gun. There are a lot of wires attached to those instruments with ring terminals (three to five per instrument), so it is easier to leave then attached to the wires once I finally got them hooked up properly.

I was surfing the web today, and somehow ended up on Larry Bowen's web site. I noted that Larry has some useful landing gear box construction notes and photos. They are a useful supplement to my list of landing gear box gotchas.

I spent several evenings this week, plus this weekend fabricating a large access door in the aft wall of the forward baggage compartment. It was a bit of extra work, but it will give good access to the area ahead of the instrument panel, which will greatly facilitate the installation and maintenance of the avionics, instruments, etc. Today I assembled the bulkhead and riveted it in place.

I cut away most of the upper half of the F-866 bulkhead, then fabricated a one-inch wide 0.090 thick doubler to go around the hole to restore the lost strength. 0.090 is really overkill - I wanted to use 0.063, but the local metal supply place didn't have any. The door is hinged at the bottom, and held closed by four #8 screws. I'll mount my fuse blocks on the aft side of the door, so they will be readily accessible once I open the door.

I decided to replace the round head screws on the rear seat throttle assembly with countersunk ones, and I'll do the same on the cockpit side covers beside the rear seat as soon as I get more countersunk anchor nuts. I may eventually replace most of the round head screws in the cockpit with countersunk ones, as they look much cleaner.

This weekend I finally bit the bullet and modified the cockpit floors to make them removable. The basic design uses pop rivets to fasten the cockpit floors, which means they are essentially non-removable. I wanted to be able to remove them to inspect the structure underneath, so I finally modified the bottom of the F-805 and F-806 bulkheads so the floors can be removed. I enlarged all the mounting holes to take #8 screws, and started installing all the anchor nuts. All the visible areas will be fastened with countersunk screws, so the floors will be flat. The hidden areas will get round head screws. It is a lot of extra work, but it'll pay dividends a few years down the road.

Terry and I finally finished riveting the aft fuselage upper skin today.

These two shots were taken while Terry was bucking the rivets in the aft fuselage. The first shot is looking into the aft fuselage from the cockpit area.

The second shot was taken though a hole in the F-810 bulkhead, which is where the aft fuselage upper skin ends at the rear of the fuselage. There isn't much room in there - better her than me :-)

At this stage, I reached a decision point where I had to decide whether to fix a small mistake in the fuselage, or leave it as is forever. I had discovered a few weeks ago that the F-804H doubler on the left side was perhaps a bit longer that it should have been, and it was not butting up against the upper longeron like it was supposed to. Instead, it had slipped outboard and the top corner of it was hitting against the side of the longeron, which prevented the skin from sitting flush against the longeron like it should.

I agonized over it for weeks - I didn't think it was a critical problem, and I almost called Vans to discuss leaving things as they were. But I finally decided I would be happier if it was fixed. So, I unclecoed the front upper skin, removed the instrument panel and canopy bow, and carefully drilled out about a dozen rivets so I could peel the fuselage open. Then I spent hours working away with a needle file getting rid of the interference problem. Today I primed the bare metal, riveted the works back together again, and reassembled the forward fuselage.

Read How to avoid this gotcha

Now I have to trim the bottom of the canopy frame where it mounts to the rollers to let it sit down a bit lower, then I can attack the fibreglas canopy skirt.

I have never worked with fibreglas before, so I'm considering doing the empennage tips first, as they are smaller and cheaper. They are also a bit more out of sight than the canopy skirt, so it might be better to use them to learn about fibreglas.

I started riveting the aft fuselage upper skin, but I've only finished about 80% of it.

I had to make a bunch of small shims to go between the F-808 and F-809 bulkheads and the skin. There were small gaps between the sides of these bulkheads and the skin - this caused the skin to be pulled inwards in those areas, making an unsightly depression. The F-809 was the worst - I needed some shims up to 0.063" thick in places.

I've still got a couple of minor tasks to do on the fuselage. I'll finish the forward baggage compartment door after I buy the lock mechanism. The forward fuselage upper skin will be riveted after I finish the wiring and avionics, as I have much better access to the forward fuselage area with the skin off.