Brief Description: Prepare forward fuselage for riveting
First I separated the fuselage sections, putting the bolts and spacers aside and un-clecoing the bottom skins. Then I removed the forward center section bulkhead and countersunk the rivet holes on the bottom. Proceeding forward, I removed the next bulkheads and countersunk them as described in the instructions and deburred the parts. Next came the floor ribs, which were removed, deburred and then dimpled top and bottom. I ignored the instruction to not dimple the forward tab because my firewall is dimpled for flush rivets so the tabs must correspond.
The next step was to remove the firewall assembly and then remove the fuel filter and flowscan brackets from the bottom skin. I cleaned up the brackets and dimpled the flowscan bracket as called for. The fuel filter brackets had been stamped and the cutout in the center distorted the brackets, which would show on the bottom skin once riveted. I used my grinder and the scotch-brite wheel to remove the protrusions until the brackets wouild sit flat and then countersunk the rivet holes.
The final task was to dimple the bottom skin and deburr the edges. Later in the instructions it calls for leaving the outermost five rivets unriveted until time to put in the cowling hinges. Since I will be using camlocs, I left those holes undimpled as well so the support strips can go in without interference. Those holes will be countersunk in assembly; in the meantime they will simply be riveted.
It occured to me today that the afgan in the pictures was knitted as an experiment by my mother, so it is entirely appropriate that it be used in building the aircraft dedicated to her. I acquired it when I was moving some stuff from her house; she gave it to me to use as packing material (obviously the experiment was not entirely a success), and I have been using it in the hangar ever since.
