Installed bolts in the lower engine weldment - 2 hours

 Putzing in the garage tonight I decided to install the bolts in the lower engine weldment. Typically most builders choose to do this first before the put the bottom skin on, but you would notice just how tight the bolt heads make bucking the rivets in the side of the weldment. In the interest of good clearance for a bucking bar, I held off installing the bolts till now.

 The plans call for AN3-5A bolts but it become very obvious that these will be too long. 

 I tried a bolt size down with the 4A's but they are too short.

Looks like I will need to go with the 5A bolts but add an extra washer. I put one under the bolt head and checked the grip, looks really good now.

I installed the nut and everything looks great. So I finished the job.

 

 

Worked on the F-796 angles - 2 hours

 One of the items on the to-do list is to get the countersinks completed, and install the screw and nut for the F-796 tank attach angle. 

I opted to follow the drawings an countersink, although I see some on the build logs choose to dimple this hole. I made my first countersink shallow, and worked up to the proper depth little by little. The area is so tight and snug to fit the nut. Fortunately I have a 3/8" socket that I have ground down for such tight spaces and it has done the trick of tightening the nut.

 

Started riveting the forward bottom skin - 4 hours

 Lots of hours compared to little amounts of rivets. This isn't the easiest area to rivet. Lots of anxiety to make the rivets good and not mess up a fairly important structural area.  Not to mention accessibility is not entirely the best but I managed to pull it off. I'm extremely pleased with the rivets on the steel engine mount.

Assembled the F-772 forward bottom skin - 4 hours

 I fitted the F-772 forward bottom skin onto the fuse. It was a bit of a long build session primary because I had to apply 3M fire barrier 2000+ around the flanges of the fire wall.  It takes a bit of time to apply it, and then spread it out for good coverage with Popsicle sticks. 

Another delay, as I started clecoing the floor skin I noticed I had missed one dimple. So pop-rivet dimple die to the rescue. I was really happy with the fire barrier coverage. I have a nice bead inside the fuse.

Prep'd the fuse for the forward bottom skin - 1.5 hours

 Spent a couple of hours in the evening to prep and prime the matting surface on the bottom center section to accept the forward bottom skin. 

On a roll riveting - 6 hours

 Im on a good roll of riveting. I'm to a point where I want to get the bottom forward floor skin on. I was dreading this part a little when reading other blogs. Seems that the floor stiffeners can be a little tricky to rivet onto the aircraft. 

All that anxiety was for nothing as the riveting of the 2 floor stiffeners went really well. Yes, it is a little tricky, but I was mentally prepared to tackle the task. I used a very long rivet set to buck the most aft rivet next to the center spar.

 

Next I opted to move back to fuse skin riveting and I started in on completing the top most rivets on the aft side skins up to the longerons. 

Still in a good rhythm I finished off the top most section of the center/aft fuse sections.

 

Lots more riveting of the fuse - 8 hours

 Spent the day riveting on the fuse. I started in by bucking the rivets on the arm rests. 

Next I started fitting the F-902 bulkhead/F-796 attach angles. Little bit of futzing with that but once I was happy with the fit. I began riveting. Then I decided to move on to the longeron riveting. I had marked out the section that needs riveting. Certain portions are not riveted as they are left open for the final fitting of the turtle deck and forward top skin. I started riveting up the F-705 bulkhead. 

 

Next step, I started riveting the aft baggage ribs.

 Continuing aft, I set the few rivets on the longeron aft of the baggage section.