Here is the doubler for the RV-7 (taildragger). The RV-7A (nose wheel) has a different doubler, as it holds the main gear. The main gear of the RV-7 is at the forward of the firewall.

The top of the bulkhead needs to be attached to the main longeron.

It’s a bit puzzling how the tank attach angle should be riveted and bolted to the outside of the fuselage.

Here I’m working on that tank attach angle and I’m wondering if this will actually be close the the tank and how on earth I will be able to connect those.

Checking (and whistling) to see if I got all the parts completed.

top view forward fuselage.

Left side.

Right side,

Overview.

Time: 3 Hours, Rivets: 0/0 (2019-11-06)

Time: 3 Hours, Rivets: 0/0 (2019-11-09)

Time: 4 Hours, Rivets: 0/0 (2019-11-10)

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Starting with the 708 Bulkhead (this is the one aft of the seats bulkhead). The plan says you should NOT rivet the 728 channel (that is the vertical piece), not sure why but let’s leave that clecoed for now.

The next bulkhead is considerably smaller and also should not be completely riveted. Riveting these bulkheads is easy, because I can use the squeezer and it’s just a few rivets.

Next Bulkhead (710) just needs an Aluminum angle attached to it.

The last two Bulkheads are more work, because they consist of two parts. Especially the 711 is more work, since the Horizontal stabilizer (from the Empennage) will be attached to this Bulkhead. Because of the two parts I could only partly use the squeezer.

The next day my Dad helped me with riveting the two small Bulkheads to the tail bottom skin. This skin is thick, because of the tail-wheel construction.
Also this part didn’t fit very well and it required a lot of trimming.

Because I’m building a tail-dragger (tail-wheel model instead of a nose-wheel version), there is some extra work involved for said tail-wheel.

Turns out to be a lot of work, because we spent 3 hours just trimming, fitting and clecoing the tail-wheel bar to both Bulkheads and the skin.
Looks like not much was done, but I was happy with the result.

Time: 3 Hours, Rivets: 52/2 (2019-08-24)

Time: 4 Hours, Rivets: 0/0 (2019-08-25)

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This mainly consists of deburring, scuffing (with Scotch Brite pads), sanding the edges and degreasing.
There are a lot of parts to prepare and prime, so it took an entire day to do all the work.

It’s not only the Bulkhead parts, but also the J-channels (stringers) and the Longerons we bend previously.

After priming, I started by assembling the first Bulkhead of the tail cone.

Again using the squeezer wherever possible.

Almost done, however some parts should NOT be riveted at this time, as it seriously complicates assembly. The plans are clear so no worries.

Time: 5 Hours, Rivets: 0/0 (2019-08-11)

Time: 2 Hours, Rivets: 21/0 (2019-08-17)

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This bulkhead is the one immediately after the seat bulkhead. They are numbered F-706 to F-712 (which is the last one).
Almost all of them require enlarging the rudder cable holes.

I found that there are more drawings related to these bulkheads, so just looking at drawing 21 is not enough.

I’m not sure why yet, but this bulkhead requires some extra holes related to attaching the static pressure sensors.

Some edges of the preformed bulkhead parts are sharp and require proper filing.

I was looking for extra aluminum angle parts but couldn’t find them.

There are a few very long parts, but I was afraid to use it, because they came with the wing-box and I knew there were parts that should NOT be cut.
I checked the Van’s Aircraft Forum and double checked with my fellow builder Joop and indeed, except for the two Longerons all other parts are fair game.

So let’s get the hacksaw.
At the rear part of the fuselage, there are several bulkheads that attach the Empennage.

For that reason there are strong stiffeners and doublers.

I use inexpensive metric drills, which are smaller then the indicated size to drill through the Aluminum. Then I use the correct Imperial size for the final size. This way I keep my precious drills pristine.

Turns out the F-706 bulkhead requires some contraption behind it, to hold the Elevator bell-crank.

Next time I will continue with bending the longerons and after that, I hope the heat wave in the Netherlands is gone, so I can start priming these parts.

Time: 3 Hours, Rivets: 0/0 (2019-07-18)

Time: 3 Hours, Rivets: 0/0 (2019-07-20)

Time: 3 Hours, Rivets: 0/0 (2019-07-21)

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The Main Bulkhead was easy, because there were only a few parts (but I repeat myself). But even with a few parts you can screw things up.

This is how it looks if you teared of the head from a screw attached in the Main Bulkhead. Somehow I gained restrained, because normally I get into “rage-mode”. It helped that I wasn’t the one breaking it. Typically I tend to over-stress screw and bolts all the time.

There was not enough screw protruding, so loosening it with pliers failed. The solution was to drill a smaller hole in the screw from the other side (platenut).

Using a threadtap we could screw it out again, without damaging the thread in the platenut. WD-40 is your friend.

What I found baffling is that one of the holes, attaching the Front and Aft side of the Main Bulkhead, was too small. We looked at it for some minutes and decided to enlarge it to the correct size.

Once all the nuts are torqued to the right moment, we use torque seal to indicate the nut is torqued and provide a visual indicator if the nut somehow gets loose in the future.

Then the second Bulkhead, starting with the seat back rest. Luckily we could use the squeezer.

What’s really handy is that I constructed drawers in my table, which I can use to “clamp” parts, so they are at a comfortable height to rivet.
Yip there are the dumb-founded faces again! Yet another Homer Simpson moment, Doh!

This time nothing broken, but we forgot to set a rivet in the bottom stiffener before riveting them together. No way we can set them and drilling out the others is not an option. It’s a lot of work, I don’t have enough of these special long rivets and most importantly drilling out rivets does not make it better.
We decided that the rivet is “not crucial” and later I came to the conclusion that I can still use a blind rivet.

I’m not sure why it looks like I have to hand-power squeeze the rivet. It’s probably my facial expression of concentration.

The hinge blocks of the flaps need some precision drilling, so we use the drillpress, to make the holes nice and clean.

Time: 6 Hours, Rivets: 269/0

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On the bottom side of the Bulkhead is quite a massive stiffener rod, that will probably attach the aft part of the Wings. Also the Flap control rod hinges are attached here.

There are no pre-drilled holes is the stiffeners, so extra care must be taken to align the parts.

The seat belt (harness) attach brackets are also connected to the stiffener. These brackets are powder-coated steel and require some trimming to prevent them from interfering with some bottom ribs.
The backrest of the seats are “adjustable”, however I didn’t understand the options so I made the backrest holder too small.

I figured that out when I flow with Erik in his RV-7 to the AOPA/NVAV Fly-In in Seppe. I solved it by trimming the holder just a little bit. It will probably give me some headache in the future when I’m installing the seats. However I was planning to do something completely different with the seats anyway, so no worries there.

The Rudder cables are going through the Bulkheads via a considerable big hole with a bushing. The pre-drilled (tool-hole) is too small to directly use the Unibit. I use the 1/4 inch drill enlarge the hole and then use the Unibit.

I also drilled some extra holes for electrical wiring. As an aside, using an electric drill with a quick release system is great. I just hold the quick release and press the button, so the machine unlocks the drill. Works great for “normal” drills, not so much for Unibits. The Unibit still turns a few rounds, just enough to scrape some skin from your hand. Somehow I only stop bad practices after heavy bleeding. Every time I just nick-it, it doesn’t work as a warning. Well this time it did.
Unfortunately these “teachings” wear off after some time and I repeat the same mistake.
Apparently my drive for efficiency conquers the pain of injury (or I’m just a lazy asshole).

Aha the high note to plane building: deburring. Not only boring, but also brutal for the hands and bad for the back. Although the stool helps a lot.

Time: 4 Hours, Rivets: 0/0 (2019-06-23)

Time: 4 Hours, Rivets: 0/0 (2019-06-26)

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The Fuselage consists of a lot of drawings and only a page per major part on what to do. With every new step, studying the drawings and try to visualize the result in your head is a time consuming phase. Also just like with riveting Wings, it is great if your working on it together, so you can discuss the drawings.

Although the Main bulkhead is the part of the Fuselage, it came packaged with the Wing kit. The reason is the tight fit with the Wing Main Spar. According to the manual, Van’s produces and drills the Bulkhead together with that specific Wing Spar.

The bolts that connect the Wing Spar to the Bulkhead is actually such a tight fit, that you need to use a wrench and pushing at the same time for just inserting the bolt.

There are several places in the bulkhead that need to be drilled in order to enable tubes and wires passing through the bulkhead. These are big holes (5/8″) and need to be positioned accurately.

The thickness of the Bulkhead is such that you cannot use the pneumatic squeezer for riveting, unless you have a special Flange Yoke, which I didn’t bother to buy. I have no regret (yet), but just as with the band-saw, if your budget has no limit, it would give more comfort.

Speaking of sawing, I tried the jig-saw again for trimming some Aluminum parts and found that the metal saw I thought I had, was actually a wood saw. That explains the rough behavior of the jig-saw. I immediately bought a few metal saws and hope next time it works better. Maybe I can completely feel good of not having the band-saw.

Just like the Firewall, the construction of the Main Bulkhead is not that big. I looked in the plans in advance and it turns out you have to create several bulkheads from forward to aft and when they are all constructed, you can assemble the Fuselage with these sub-assemblies.

Time: 7 Hours, Rivets: 40/0 

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Notice the hole in the middle of the Firewall with the cleco’s and the painters tape. I use the cleco’s and tape as a visual queue NOT to rivet these parts, because they need to be riveted in combination with the Firewall recess. This part is not riveted yet, as it provides easy access during building the Fuselage.

I have to lift the back rivet plate, because the Firewall has webbed edges. Also I use painters tape (again) to keep the rivets in place. There is special rivet tape for that, but painters tape works just as well. I tried polypropylene-based tape (Scotch 3M), but that is harder to get off.

Several time I have to remove the recess cleco’s, as they are in the way, preventing flush riveting. However I keep them “on a leash”, because I’m afraid I will forget the recess and just rivet everything.

Crap!! These steel edges cut through the skin like a knife and you don’t even notice it. After bleeding on my shirt I noticed the scratches on my arms from turning the Firewall back and forth.

I used a (old) cleaning cloth as an improvised bandage.

I forgot removing a cleco that touched the back rivet plate, so I screwed up 6 rivets that weren’t set flush. Drilling them out and resetting them did the trick. Took me a while to grasp why they were not flush, because it was less then a millimeter.

Almost done, everything nice and flush. The tape on the bottom covers rivets which I cannot set with back riveting, due to lack of space.

All done. The tape did its work, I didn’t accidentally riveted the recess opening. Also the thick angles at the bottom are not set completely. This is the other side of where the tape is. I’ll rivet those next time with the “normal” rivet-gun/bucking-bar method.

Time: 6 Hours, Rivets: 175/6 (2019-06-02)

Time: 1 Hours, Rivets:  12/2 (2019-06-09)

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I have to create a bracket from a thick angle piece. I had still a piece of the same angle from the Wing kit, so I started with that one.

I still think a band-saw is not necessary, but I must admit that the handsaw is not easy. You hardly ever need it, but when you do it sucks that I don’t have a band-saw. Maybe I do need to buy one. I’ll probbaly do it right after the last part I need it for.

Clecoing all the parts to the Firewall for match drilling. Steel has two properties that bite you. It’s sharp as a knife and you can kill your drill on it.

There is a recess in the Firewall, which is necessary for the oil filter and the governor (according to the manual). All these holes need to be dimpled, because the goal is to keep this (forward) side of the Firewall flush.

One stiffener must be created from Aluminum angle. Unfortunately the similar angle I had from the Wing kit is too short.

Let’s drill all the holes. For match drilling I use the inch drills, however for creating a hole, I use metric Cobalt drills. These are easier to get here in europe, they are cheaper and I probably screw them up anyway. Once the hole is drilled I take the slightly bigger correct drill and match drill the hole.

Here is he clecoed Firewall as you can see it has both #40 (chrome cleco) and #30 (copper cleco) holes. Now I can deburr and prime the Aluminum parts.

After dimpling the forward side of the Firewall looks like this.

Time: 6 Hours, Rivets: 0/0 (2019-05-26)

Time: 4 Hours, Rivets: 0/0 (2019-06-01)

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