The Forward Bulkheads are all forward of the main bulkhead. As you can see it consists of vertical (bulkheads) and horizontal (longerons) parts that connect the firewall to the main bulkhead and the skin. Here is the doubler for the RV-7 (taildragger). The RV-7A (nose wheel) has a different doubler, […]
With the side skins attached to the longerons and the bottom skin inserted, the firewall can be installed. Important is that the firewall goes “in” the fuselage. The flange of the firewall is about 1mm behind the forward edge of the side and bottom skin. Be careful to have the […]
This is a look from the place where the firewall will be all the way down to the tail. The next to photo’s show the conical bend from the front side skin to the tail bottom skin. Time: 6 Hours, Rivets: 0/0 Video No video made.
Important milestone is marrying the center to the tail section. The tail is on one table, where the center is on the other table. I can roll the center section towards the tail section. Both tables can roll, so it’s easier to maneuver them. The baggage ribs need to go […]
Short entry, where I did mostly priming a lot of parts and clecoed the floor plates. Not really substantial stuff, a lot of small things and preparations for attaching the center section to the tail section. Time: 4 Hours, Rivets: 0/0 (2019-10-12) Time: 4 Hours, Rivets: 10/0 (2019-10-13) Video No […]
Just like the fuselage side and bottom skin, riveting the center section (specifically the bottom skin) is a two man job. Today my dad helped me with the center section. First the seat ribs need to be bolted and riveted ta the aft part of the main bulkhead. Now the […]
Up to this point a single table was just fine. Now it looks like I need two. Also with the construction becoming bigger and bigger it is harder to find a suitable way to work on it. Here I try attaching the bottom skin, while the construction is laying on […]
Although may goal was to start working on the center section, I still had to rivet part of the tail cone. Since my dad had some time, we started with that first. Many rivets at the end of the tail cone could be set with the squeezer, but those deeper […]
Besides the pre-drilled and pre-formed parts, you sometimes have to create specific (mostly smaller) parts from “raw-material”. In this case it are spacers, that fill up the gap between some ribs and the seat bulkhead. The reason is that all the ribs are the same, where the distance to the […]
Since the surface area of the tail skin is quite large, it took a considerable amount of time (and paint) to get it primed. In the evening I took an hour cleco everything together. All the parts are dimpled, even the J-channels. The bottom cleco’s are harder to set. Last […]