Side decks and top skins
I took a couple of days off from “real” work and got some good stuff done on the plane. I made the spacers for the elevator bellcrank which I had already built. This was easy as I had done this before on the aileron hinges. Next I moved on to riveting the side top decks. This was an adventure. The rivet tail access was minimal on most of the rivets, and nearly non-existent on some. I used a squeezer yoke on many of the rivets and my long thin bucking bar on some that were really hard to get to. I even got rivets set around the center spar uprights (no pop rivets). On those that I knew would be really tough to buck, I used a slightly short rivet to limit the pain. It took me the better part of three hours to get both sides riveted on.
Next I moved on to something really fun. Fitting and match drilling the aft top skins. I deviated from the instructions in that I installed the aft most bulkhead before putting on the skin. It just makes a lot more sense to me to do it that way. Before the skins went on, I trimmed and marked the top J-stringers. With the skins on, I drilled the bulkhead to longeron gussets to the longerons. I also fitted the top center rib and it’s little attachment clip at the rear. Access to that is a little funky but totally workable. While I was match drilling the skins, Tanya came out and made some patterns for soundproofing material for the firewall and other odd shaped interior panels. Next I’m going to attack the side steps.
