A big day in the shop today... Starting off with the mundane chore of countersinking and dimpling the nutplate rivet attach holes in the angles and seat rests from yesterdays deburring session. After that it was on to the side skins...
For starters, I deburred the edges of both of the big skins. These skins go on the side of the seat rib subassembly and provide the sides for the pilot/co-pilot seating areas. Looking ahead, it was my goal to get both of the sides bent today. The side skins come as 2 identical parts with identcal holes/notches cut, and the bottom aft part of the skins get bent in a conical that matches the thinning profile of the airplane (the F-807 bulkhead) - so I had to make sure I bent one as the "RIGHT" and the other as the "LEFT". To aide in doing this I stripped the inside blue vinyl off of both skins and that gave me a R and L skin, then I de-vinyled just the edge of the opposite side of both skins. Then it was a matter of smoothing the edges of the skins.
The conical bending is done by marking the edge of the skin (5/8" from the edge) and the other angle just 1/4" below the rivet lines (see pic #1) and then placing the skin under a 2x4 board that has been cut by 45 degrees to allow room for the bending skin and the angles. You cleco and clamp 2 - 3/4" x 3/4" aluminum angles on the 5/8" line and bend skin inward and upward to achieve the conical shape. The first skin took 3 iterations and turned out pretty good. The second skin took 1 iteration and fit perfectly. Such is the learning curve.
marking the bend lines on the skin
the curves came out really well - especially this one
