We decided to cleco the top forward fuselage skin into place and match drill before disassembling. We had an unpleasant suprise to find that we could not get the last row of holes on the right side to match up to the right side skin holes. No matter how many clecoes we installed the holes would not reach the side skin holes. I bent the firewall top flanges down some more as well as the ribs and subpanel flanges, all to no avail.
It seems that the people who built the QB fuselage did not get the right side skin near the firewall tight enough to reach another 1/8 inch up to be flush at the top with the longeron. They drilled the holes anyway and were in the lower part of the longeron flange. I laid awake most of the night trying to figure out a fix. The next morning I called Van's, and Ken Scott said the solution is to make a new skin a little wider and not punch the holes on the right side. I can match drill from the inside out on that last row of holes. The holes in the longeron seem to have just enough lower edge distance to be ok. Well, I have a new skin coming that is 3/8" wider. Van's is only charging me the shipping.
Skin would not match holes on the right side skin.
