Made FAR less progress today than I thought. Gained a renewed appreciation for the Pre-Punched parts. 2 Instrument panel attach plates. F-1003D&E, For some unknown reason Van didn't make these parts, but rather provides some sheel alum bent into an angle. The 2 outer attach plate come predrilled. After you get these 'made' the instructions say to attach them to the instrument panel and to the F1071 top skin. The problem is that the entire assembly is clecoed to the fuse at this point and there is no way short of being a controtionist to comply with the instructions, It would be easier if the entire assembly could be removed and worked on on the bench, but when you asssemble it on the fuse, there are some clecos that prevent it's being easily removed. I ended up taking enough of the top skin undone to allow getting at the attach clecos and removing it from the Fuse. then I inverted it on the bench and marked the instrument panel screw holes on the attach flanges w a sharpie, match drilling one of them #30, putting a cleco in and then match drilling the other screw holes #19 while keeping pressure against the upper fwd top skin. once the #19 holes are in I attached nutplates and screwed the attach plates to the instrument panel. finally was able to match drill the #40 holes from the top skin. ONLY----- when you go to dimple the Attach brackets, you find that 5-6 of the nutplates are directly under the skin holes. No way to dimple them much less rivet them! The only solution was to drill off the offending nutplates, then dimple the holes. it will be easier to reattach the nutplates after the top skin is riveted.
Here's the assembly removed from Fuse w/ the inner attach brackets installed
Countersink the hand grips after match drilling the top skin
If you look you can se where I had to remove the nutplates to allow room for dimples and riveting.
