Brief Description: Fuselage Forward Sub Structure #4
Very productive day on the airplane. I got up early and was out in the garage by 5am after feeding the horses. My friend Bob Candido who is a 400XP driver from work, is going to stop by this morning and take a peek at the project. He has in mind to build an -8 as well - very good choice!!!
-I backriveted the stiffeners on the bottom panel of the forward baggage compartment.
-Skipped the step that has you rivet on the F-866D brake line mount as I need to fabricate a new one to account for the park brake incase I install one.
-Cleco'd the baggage compartment components and the firewall to the forward fuselage section (starting to look like something!).
-Match drilled the firewall to the floor panel and removed and deburred accordingly.
-Countersunk the 9 holes in the bottom of the firewall lower cross brace where the cooling ramp will attach and dimple the forward floor for the same.
-I mixed up some proseal and put a light layer on the same 9 rivets as mentioned above and cleco'd the firewall back on.
Bob showed up which was perfect timing so we chatted alitte then I put him on the bucking bar to rivet the firewall to the outboard floor per the plans. A couple of rivets had really crappy access to buck, but Bob did a great job and we knocked it out. He won't have any issues building his RV.
It was nice to have Bob's company and get some good progress on the airplane! I need to get Mike back over too. I feel fortune to have such a great support group with Rick, Bob, Mike, Greg, etc.
Backriveting the bottom forward baggage shelf.
Countersinking the firewall assembly (yes I did go back and reprime these!