Nearly finished the External Step installation - 6 hours

 Jumped into the build today wanting to finish the step installation. I have to work on the couple of odd rivet lines. One of the existing AD3 rivets gets drilled out and replaced with the new AD4 rivet, that's simple enough. The other rivet above it is a bit more tricky. Ultimately it need's to be lowered as its current placement puts it too close to an existing AN3 rivet. 

Before I start drilling, I decided to shape and bend the mounting plate first. It is a task I'm kinda dreading so while it is early in the day might as well get to it. I shaped the aft end of the mounting plate in a fairly rudimentary style. The recent gusset enhancement made by Vans limits how much I can trim on the back corner. 

Grabbing various hammers, I slowly hammered the corner of the plate and bent it to the shape of the fuselage. Takes some trial and error but eventually it fits fairly good. 

 

Now to fit and drill those last couple of rivet holes...You can see the one rivet hole that I lowered. In the end I don't think its out of place...it's a "character" rivet.

Next I need to fit the F-6125 step support blocks. As usual fabricating drilling templates makes for quick, easy and accurate drilling on these. Using the template, I started all holes as #40 and then proceeded with drilling incrementally (#40, #30, #21) to finish with #12. 

The blocks fit very well, but I need a proper air 90deg angle drill to finish the install. My small angle drill kit won't work as the drill head is too large.