I started drilling the z-brackets for the nutplates. I quickly figured out that I do not have a nut plate jig that works for the AN3 bolt. I have access to a friends Brown Tools 12 piece nut plate kit and nothing in there worked. The AN3 bolt is a 10-32 size, so I dug into my nuts and bolts collection and found 10-32 X 3/8" machine screws. Tried it in the nut plate and it was perfect. Bit too tight. So i got out the 10-32 tap and ran a tap through 3 nut plates. Now the screws go in nice and smooth.
I installed 3 nutplates on a given z-bracket and carefully lined up the rivet attachment holes with the line I had originally drawn.
Then tightened the screws. Once everything was set, I placed the assembly under the drill press and drilled the holes with #40. This process takes some time to set up but it worked extremely well. The nut plate attachment holes came out perfect and precise.
I got through about 3/4 of the z-brackets
