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.

Even more riveting of the fuse - 5 hours

 Slow and steady wins the race. Started in on riveting the side skins to the seat ribs. Its tricky to get in there and make sure you are clear of the nutplates, but the rivets are textbook. 

Once the seat rib riveting was complete, had enough gas to start the forward rivets on the corner ribs. 

 

 

More rivetting of the fuse - 4.5 hours

 On a roll with bucking rivets. I started working forward of the center spar section. I riveted part of the F-713 longeron and F-713 stiffeners. Its tedious work doing it solo but awfully rewarding. All in all the riveting has gone extremely well.

Final fitting of fuse skins and started riveting - 5.5 hours

Overall the fitment when clecoing the fuse back together is really good. The fit however could be a bit tighter on the pilot side where the side fuse meets the corner rib. I can probably slide a dime or penny in a slight gap between the two. If I cleco it...the gap disappears but it doesn't sit well with me doing that. 

So I unclecoed most of the pilot side skin, Re-levelled the saw horses and cleco'd the side skin back on. And bingo...fit is fantastic. The skins on both sides fit nice and tight with the corner ribs on both sides. 

Once that was done, I started working on the fit of the side skins with the seat ribs. A bit of clecoing, re-clecoing, I inserted AD4 rivets by hand in a few of the holes which helped massage the fit better 

I am happy and ready to rivet. I started in by riveting the center spar section (F-704) on both sides