Riveting the seat assembly and flap channel - 5 hours

Now that the primer has had 24 hours to dry, time to get some of the riveting done. I started riveting the F-766A channel assembly. I get much better results and more consistent rivets when I buck rather than squeeze. So that's what I'll do.

Next I can rivet the hinge lengths on the bottom of the seat floors. I looked at doing these with solid AN rivets, but in the end I decided to use the pull rivets as shown in the plans. I don't need to be a hero, I just need to finish the plane.

Big priming day - 7 hours

I needed to get some parts primed in order to keep making progress on the build. There is a considerable amount of parts that need to be primed (baggage floors, seat floors, flap parts, etc etc). I've been holding off for some warm weather so that I can prime outside but it looks like its not going to come for some time. So I just have to bite the bullet and do a priming session in the garage.

I set up the all of the buckets, tarps, etc so that I can do a priming run.

Its a lot of work to prime. Wash, scrub, acid etch, rinse, MEK, prime.  I did as much as I could, but at the end of the session, I didn't have to drive to keep priming. I still have all the big panels to complete (Baggage bulkhead, baggage floors and panels, forward seat floors) I wait for a warmer day to do those. I don't need them done just yet.

Notching the rivet holes in the Almost a 14 mod - 2 hours

 One of the items that's a bit of a head scratch-er for me was figuring out how the rivets should work on the Almost a 14 mod where it connects to the longeron. The you-tube instruction video notes that the rivets are to be ground down so the end cap sits flush with the underside of the longeron. I don't like the idea of grinding down rivets, so I chose to install the required rivets, however I will notch the end caps to fit around the rivets.

First I need to open up the rivet holes to the size/diameter of a shop rivet head.

I can now cut openings in the end cap rivet holes so the end caps will slip into place with the longeron rivets in-tact. 

Yup, this will work well.

More interior cabin work - 6 hours

 At first glance, it looks like I don't have much left to do in the aft section of the Cabin Area, but in actually there is a mountain of small tasks that need to still happen before I can prime and assemble. I need to drill the nutplates in the F-767 attach plate. (I deviated from plans and put them at a 45...don't ask why, I just did).

Next I stripped all the interior out of the cabin area including the flap assembly so that I can prep everything for priming. 

Lots of deburing, edge prep, filing and scotchbrite work.

One item that I haven't addressed yet is countersinking and dimpling the canopy deck/side rails. Doing a little research on this, there's not much out there to say how other builders did this area (Countersink the longerons, or the canopy deck). Seems like builders have done both from what I can tell. I reference a couple of different builders build logs regularly and they both have countersunk the longerons so that's the path I will stick to. As usual though, setting up the countersink depth for nested material is always a painful process. I never like this part as its a bit too much guess and test for my liking. 

  

 

Once all the countersinking is done, all of the canopy deck/side rails could then be dimpled. 

 

Finished final drilling of the seat back assembly - 2 hours

Small day in the garage today. I've been sick lately and not motivated to build. But I managed to get out there and get something done.I finished up-sizing all of the holes in the seat back assembly from #40 to #30. As well I deburred most of the holes. Just a few stubborn ones I will have to debur with the dremel later.

 

Fabricating the seat back assembly - 4 hours

 I've been putting the assembly of the seat backs on hold for a while. My plan is to order the Classic Aero aviator seats and they do not require the Van's seat back assembly. But seeing how the order lead time is considerable, when I do place the order...I won't have seat backs for quite some time. 

I better put these together, if not for permanent means at least I can use them for temporary means. 

I had all of the angles cut previously and all required notches and and radius's have been completed. All I needed to do was layout all of the dimensions and mark center lines.

 The fan spacer comes in incredibly handy here, I couldn't imagine the time it would take to make each hole by hand. 

The part that takes a bit of time is to mark the holes on the sides of the seat back assembly. I can't use the fan spacer as the holes are not equal distant, and they are totally dependent on the grooves of the seat back. I decided to make a drilling template out of scrap. I bent the scrap so that it would fit in between the groves in the metal and I carefully placed two holes according to the dimensions on the plans. Now I can use this drilling template to drill all of the holes. 

I managed to drill all of the holes to #40 and cleco the assembly together.

Fitting the Almost a 14 mod for the flap assembly - 3 hours

 In order to make the Almost a 14 mod center cap fit better on the flap assembly tower, I need to fabricate a new F-767 attachment plate. The attachment plate is a slightly shorter piece than stock. It also requires new mounting holes to be drilled. 

The fit is really good now. 

 

The aft attachment plate doesn't fit so good. There is a gap between the mounting plate and the flap assembly, as well there is very little clearance for the attachment screws. 

I was toying with a number of ideas to make this fit better. I was going to fabricate a new Aft mounting plate out of 0.063" aluminum, but on the advice of my local builder buddy Mike, I fabricated a small spacer. I will cut this down and shape it accordingly but it looks like it will work very well.