Free time for odds and ends

This weekend was a mixed bag of work on the airplane.  First Travis stopped by on Friday and we did a little more riveting on the fuselage.  The progress is slow and we probably have 8 hours or so more to do but he works some late hours so our time together doesn't always match up well.  Saturday I was able to seal the firewall with fireproof sealant.  That allowed me to finish the assembly and prepping for rivets on the fuselage.  I also managed to finish up the tail rivets by myself but that's about all I can do alone.

Sunday I spent most of the day working on a Christmas present for Amy but I did get some time later in the day to assemble my engine stand and get "big red", the engine case, mounted for assembly later on.  A few pictures show the engine.  Can't wait to start assembling it!

Baby its cold outside!

The title pretty much says it all!  Its been so cold that I haven't really had the drive to go out into the garage.  Even with my heater running all night it only got up to about 50 degrees in there.  However, that doesn't mean I was idle all weekend.  I did manage to get the firewall and a couple other parts primed.  That was my big hold up and the weather today warmed up enough in the sun that I could etch and rinse the firewall.  I did run into a slight hiccup though, after doing the etching I took the firewall out to rinse it off and both of my hoses were frozen solid.  I was pretty sure I drained them but there must have been some water sitting in a loop because nothing would go through.  So, I got out the bucket and used it to do the rinsing.  I think I rinsed my foot more than the firewall but at least its done.  Oh one other thing, I built the rolling fuselage stand that will allow me to move it around the garage.  Both cars should fit inside the garage comfortably once again.

The fuselage sitting upside down on its new rolling stand.  I added a little height to the stand for this part and after I finish the riveting and roll it right side up I will set it lower to the floor for ease of access.

This is a picture of the firewall after priming sitting on the front of the plane.  Still not ready for riveting but getting close!

Acetone...and 7220

So I mentioned last night that I was going to re-prime the firewall because of the horrible condition of the 7220 Napa primer I used.  Well today I started the process of removing the old primer.  Acetone worked like a charm on the 7220!  However, I have to sing the praises of the Polyfiber epoxy primer I used on some of the parts that were attached to the firewall already.  The Acetone did not touch that stuff!!!  Nice!

I took the day off today because I am having a floor installed the in the basement for storage so not much work got done.  One pic to show.

Its so pretty all nice and clean, I almost hate to prime it. See the two white vertical angles mid firewall?  those are the pieces I primed with the Polyfiber epoxy primer.

Can it be December already?

Well the weekend is done and I had a nice long 4 days to work on the airplane....and work I did!  I think I put in at least 40 hours in that 4 days and my body is telling me so.  Lets get to it shall we...what did I accomplish in those hours?  Well not a lot of pictures to show but here is the list.

1. Thursday
1. Countersunk the longerons (this took forever!)
2. Prepared about 40 different parts for priming.  This includes a lot of organizing of the garage, hanging of plastic, wiping parts down with lacquer thinner, and staging them for etching on Friday.
2. Friday
1. Turkey day so about all I got done was the etching of the parts and the priming of most of them
3. Saturday
1. finished priming the parts that I hadn't got to on Friday and started assembling the fuselage again.
2. Tons and tons of "little details" that needed to be taken care of before I can start riveting the fuse together.  I know I missed a few but hopefully they wont be hard to fix when I finally figure out what they are!
4. Sunday
1. Finished assembling the fuse, took care of a  bunch more "to-do's" and prepped for riveting.  A friend came over to help with the riveting.  THANKS Shane!

Enough of that...I'm sure there was a ton of other things to tell you about but here are the few pics I took.

My "jig" for countersinking the longerons.

This is my idea of a paint booth.  It didn't do a great job but at least it kept most of the priming dust off of the rest of the garage.

The inside of the paint booth after I had completed my first priming session.  Lots of white in here.

Here is a picture I couldn't resist taking.  Its the inside of the fuselage before I got the side skins hung.

Oh yea, my bugaboo.  If you look at the big angle up at the top of the picture you will see a gap as if its sitting crooked.  Well, its not, the darn thing (and its brother on the other side) are actually not square.  I checked the stock I used to make the part and it wasn't square either!!  To fix this I had to drill out all those rivets and put it in my vice to "persuade" it into the correct position.  Thats ok, I also decided to re-prime the firewall aluminum.  As you can see from this pic the 7220 primer does not hold up well.

Ah yes, Shane running the rivet gun.  I can't tell you how helpful it was to have him here!

Fun night of dimpling

I know its not in character but I just had to post tonight. First I had a great night in the garage using a DDRT2 dimpling tool that I borrowed from a fellow RV builder (thanks Shawn!)  Amy was also busy tonight with "the boy" and I had to take a picture to show you how beautiful the Christmas tree is...especially considering the background!

This think makes beautiful dimples!!

See, isn't that a great tree...ok its a little out of focus.

Another week goes by

I just realized that it has been a week since my last post.  With that large of a gap you would think lots got done and while I feel that is true you won't be able to see it by the pictures tonight.  I realized I only have one new picture and that is of the rudder pedals.  I also managed to get the following done...

1. Installed the baggage compartment ribs and one cover on each side.
2. final drilled all fuselage holes.
3. Installed and drilled forward floor stiffeners.  (forgot to take a picture)
4. Travis came over and helped me move the wings and their storage rack.  (see picture below)

One more thing I forgot to mention this week... I ordered my Vertical Power VPX-Sport!  This little device will assist me in making my wiring runs, and its computer controlled so I will have some really neat options.

I didn't get much "plane time" this week but I was able to build the rudder controls including the brake pedals (not shown).  Here is the rudder pedal controls, upside down of course.  

Yep, that's the living room.  Amy even approved it...until she saw how big the wings are.  Now she is asking me when the storage area in the basement is going to be ready.  Not sure why...

Longerons and firewall

Time for the weekend update.  I got to spend a fair amount of time in the garage this weekend. Friday evening I hung the firewall on the fuselage and started the process of mounting the many, many longerons, gussets, bulkheads spacers, and many more parts that seem to take way longer than they should to get right.  The lower longerons needed a "small" twist, the auxiliary longerons needed a twist, oh and also part of one side of the angle removed.  I don't think there was a single part that got installed this weekend that didn't require some sort of bending, twisting, or at least "fitting".  I have been reading many accounts of problems with the F-996B and C parts.  Turns out that Van's plans actually have the wrong dimensions for the location of two of the end holes.  Took me 2 tries apiece to get the C correct.  Anyway the forward angle work is complete and now I get to move on to the rudder pedals and associated mounts.  Not much for pictures but here is what I ended up with at the end of the various days.

Friday nights work ended with the firewall mounted, drilled, and the floor cleco'd on.

Closeup shot of the upper firewall mount.  This required lots of finess to get it "right" then I had to add a few clamps to make sure nothing moved while I was drilling it out.

This is how things sit tonight.  I spent all day on this section of the fuselage as I noted in the comments.  10 hours of work.

Here is a look at the inside where I spent most of the weekend.