Starter riveting the aft top skin - 3 hours

 This was a difficult decision for me - Do I start riveting the top skins now or leave them for a while? After some research I finally decided that I will rivet the F-775 rear top skin and leave the F-7112 aft top skin off. 

First step is to rivet the F-787 stiffener web to the F-707B angle clip.

 

Next the F-775 rear top skin was cleaco'd on and then I began riveting the aft most rivet line. Always a little tricky to rivet around a curve, but I managed it just fine. 

Priming the Aft Top Skins - 6 hours

Another nice day out, so perfect time to get some priming done. Since the aft top skins are not subjected to wear, I will use the self etching primer as opposed to epoxy primer. 

I cleaned and dimpled all of the top skin parts. Scuffed accordingly and then primed all pieces. Only item that I forgot and I'm really annoyed with myself is that I didn't edge roll the top skins. I've edge rolled everywhere else but not this...darn.

 

The outstanding area that needs to be addressed is on the sides of the fuselage where the aft top skin overlaps the fuselage needs to have some primer applied. So, I took care of it. 

Preparing the aft top skin structure - 2 hours

 Since it was such a nice day out, I wanted to pull the plane out onto the driveway. I’ve been wanting to do that for a very long time. I think at this point is doesn't quite look like a much of a plane yet, but I think it’s cool

Today I choose to start prepping the aft top skin structure. All of the bulkheads where de-burred and primer was touched up. 

Installing the WD-721 gear wedments - 6 hours

 Well don't be fooled..Getting the WD-721 gear weldments installed is not the easiest process for a number of reasons. A while back, I took extra time to make sure the gear weldments fit the spar and all bolt heads before the spar was riveted into the fuse. This involved opening some of the bolt holes very slightly to get everything to fit. Boy I was glad I did that then, because doing it now would be an insane pain in the butt. 

The next hurdle is getting the actual weldments into the fuse. The nutplates on the forward spar interfere and need to be removed. The gear leg holes in the bottom skin are just a tad too tight on my project so I needed to open them up slightly.

 Next fit hurdle is the fit of the downward leg on the weldment. Lots of build logs talk about how theirs interfere with the floor stiffener. Fortunately I don't have an issue with this as others do, however in order to get the welment into place you do need to get the flange slipped behind the floor stiffener. 

It does take a little effort to get the weldment in under the forward flange of the spar. You have to lift on the spar flange a little bit

Now that the weldment is in....comes the most annoying part. The weldment interferes with one of the lower rivets on the side of the fuse. I anticipated the interference when I initially fit the weldments prior to fuse assembly...I did make some notches in the weldments, but apparently not enough.

So out the weldments come....for the hundredth time. And I have to open the notches a bit more. 

 After some work with the files...I have the notches set and the weldments fit tight to the spar. 

 

The weldments are fit....but not entirely bolted to the spar yet. That involves another work session and frankly...I just don't want to look at these again for a while.

 

Misc. work and drilling the gear legs - 5 hours

 Today I works a little bit on a number of things. I checked the fit of the new fuel selector and everything is exactly as my other fuel selector. I installed new nutplates in the selector. Also, rather than using locktite on the selector fittings, I stagged (or punched) the screw heads as per the selector instructions. 

I managed to finish up the few pesky rivets in the F-721B canopy deck. Right where the F-704 bulkhead meets the canopy deck access to some rivets is interesting. I managed to slide the narrow bucking bar above the F-704 uprights (in the aft canopy deck "channel") and used a second tungsten bucking bar below the narrow bar to buck the rivet. It actually turned out really well. 

Since I am on a roll with riveting, I set the six rivets (3 per side) in the arm rest/F-705. 

 

Next...I am on to the gear legs. I want to get working on all the interior center cover area and I think by installing the gear leg weldments will give me something to support myself when I reach over and into the forward cabin. It becomes important to drill these now for the gear leg attachment bolt. Setting up on the work bench, I installed the legs into the weldments and drilled the hole with my 0.311" reamer.

Don't let this description fool you....It took a lot of time to get the weldments cleaned up enough to allow the legs to go in. Also, it was very stressful to get the bolt hole aligned properly enough to drill. 

New parts and tools arrive - 1.5 hours

 Today a new fuel selector from Vans arrived, as well as a new thin tungsten bucking bar from Amazon. The fuel selector I had just isn't going to work in the tight space I have so I purchased the proper fuel selector from Vans that have the integral -6 flared fittings (#FS 20X7T).

 I needed a thin bucking bar to get the forward rivets in the F-721B aft canopy deck. Searching around Amazon had a 0.38"x0.75"x6" tungsten bucking bar from Midwest Tungsten service. It turns out that this bar is the perfect size to get into the aft canopy deck area. I taped on some Popsicle sticks to help get the bar to clear the longeron, and then I could easily set most of the forward rivets. There's just a couple pesky ones I need to set.

 

Made the fuselage mobile cart - 6 hours

 I want to get the fuselage on a mobile cart so I can move the fuse out of the garage this summer. Give me room to work and also the ability to clean and sweep the floors around the fuse.

Off to home depot I went anf bought the wood and locking casters I needed. Wow it was expensive. 7/16" OSB was $60/sheet and a 10' 2x4" was $15/each). Ouch. Well I spent the day working on its and then painted it.