Brief Description: Instrument Panel and Sub-panels
As I was ordering more nutplates I realized that they had the miniature MK size nutplates that are shorter than the K-2000 nutplates. The extra room would be great so I will wait till they come in and adjust once again the nutplate locations.
After receiving them I adjusted the locations and marked them. Of course I didn't change the screw locations but it gave more clearance for the nutplate lugs and then I can even get a little more clearance for the sub-panel cutouts.
After getting the nutplates adjusted, I drilled all the rivet locations in the nutplate locations. Next I had to cut the inboard edges of each sub-panel to mate up to the their respective edges of the main instrument panel. All worked well.
I then installed the nutplates. Ooops....not much clearance to get the nutplate rivet that is by the outside of the instrument panel. In an effort to position the nutplates as far outboard as possible and using the mini MK nutplates, I was in a little quandry on how to get the rivets set. No real good bucking bars to get in the limited space.....backrivet driver too large diameter.....and pneumatic squeezer dies too wide. I finally figured out that if I used a small square piece of steel and used double side sticky tape to hold it on the anvil....I just may be able to get the job done. Success.....the small piece of hard high speed steel did the job perfectly! Another obstacle overcome. I just want to say that double sided sticky tape has proven itself time and time again...I love the stuff!
After getting the nutplates installed the MK nutplates allowed me to give more clearance in the sub-panel cutouts due to the lugs being more compact in nature (see photo #2 below).
