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Kupe's Zodiac 650B
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Date:  5-3-2014
Number of Hours:  1.50
Manual Reference:  6-B-21
Brief Description:  Rear Top Skin Fitting

Ran to a couple of small hiccups while measuring out the rear top skin. It seems there's a small discrepancy in the plans regarding the flange location of the rear bulkhead. Being a good follower, it took me a while to convince myself of this, but after multiple measurements of the bulkhead positions, the size of the baggage area, and the distance between the baggage bulkhead and the middle bulkhead I convinced myself the aft bulkhead was 15mm further forward than the plans say so I adjusted the distance between the aft and middle bulkheads.

Additionally, I found that the fore-aft positioning of the rear topskin (which is essentially a tapering triangle shape) is critical to having sufficient span to go from the top longeron of one side over the bulkheads to the top longeron of the other side. To accommodate this, the skin needed to be 35mm further aft than the plans state. A quick visit to the Zeith builder site led me to a thread where others had seen similar differences, which helped build my confidence.

Once that was figured out, I put a couple of pilot holes in the top skin where the centerline intersects the rear and baggage bulkhead flanges, and attached the skin to the two bulkheads. A little clever use of an L-angle and clamps helpd me stabilize the bulkheads at the plans-required 6 degree back sweep. Then I pulled the top skin down flush with the sides and clamped it in place with an extrusion along each side. Looks like it's going to fit fine now,
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Plan excerpts from 6-B-12 & 6-B-21 with my changes added to them.

Plan excerpts from 6-B-12 & 6-B-21 with my changes added to them.

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Initial fitting from the front. Two clecoes and two clamped extrusions holding on the skin.

Initial fitting from the front. Two clecoes and two clamped extrusions holding on the skin.

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From the back right side - rear top skin clamped in place for fitting,

From the back right side - rear top skin clamped in place for fitting,

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