Prepare before Side Skin

Damn, I had so many parts primed, but still forgot the interior side panels of the baggage compartment.

Bummer, now I need an additional prime session. Oh well, it turned out I missed some spots anyway.

Before riveting the side skin to the fuselage there are some specific parts you need to check. Mainly on the firewall, because the side skin is so close to the vertical stiffener, there is no way you can rivet anything to it once the side skin is attached. Also blind rivets (sometimes called pop rivets) are not strong enough here.

With a huge amount of parts primed, the amount of dimpling is equally extreme. Not only the skins, but also all the parts.

Besides dimpling, also attaching the nutplates needs to be done after priming.

After getting over the aggravation of the missed baggage side panels, I figured out they also need trimming (considerably I might add).

Those gussets side rivets will be completely unreachable after the skin is riveted, so now is the time to do it. Actually the manual holds a brief list of all the tasks that MUST be done before riveting the side skin.

The only task on that list I couldn’t figure out was riveting the longeron for the rudder pedals. It must be riveted on the firewall before the skin, but with what angle?
I’ll make a note NOT to forget it just before riveting the skin (what could possibly go wrong).

The plans don’t mention the brake pads, but I figure they can safely be riveted.

Time: 5 Hours, Rivets: 98/1

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