I used Kicad to make the schematics. The Avionics schematic was rather easy, as it’s just browsing through the manuals of the various Avionics and merge the schematics.

The Console is almost completely designed by myself. The Lights are integrated with the Flyleds board. Although the space between the seats of the RV-7 is small, I really wanted a console with a Throttle quadrant, seat heaters, Lights and Flaps.

The last schematic is the one for the Engine, which is loosely based on Figure Z-19 of the AeroElectric Connection from Bob Nuckolls and the manual of ULPower.

Some of the standard electronics do not have a proper brackets to attach the to the panels. To solve this I use my 3D printer to crate brackets. This one is for the (internal) USB power supplies.

The Panel only has the bare minimum of Avionics and Switches. The two big spaces in the middle are preserved for two ‘standard’ tablets.

Now I can start wiring up all the components. I created several power bars (and a ground bar) to distribute the power of the battery via the fuses to all the Avionics.

The ECU of ULPower comes with two wiring harnesses, one from the Engine to the ECU and one from the ECU to the Avionics. The wires are all color-coded and bundled with colored heat shrink sleeves.

It took me almost 60 hours to complete all the Avionics and Wiring.

Time: 4 Hours, Rivets:  6/2  (2020-12-21)

Time: 7 Hours, Rivets: 10/0  (2020-12-22)

Time: 6 Hours, Rivets:  8/0  (2020-12-24)

Time: 4 Hours, Rivets:  0/0  (2020-12-26)

Time: 8 Hours, Rivets:  0/0  (2020-12-29)

Time: 8 Hours, Rivets:  0/0  (2021-01-01)

Time: 8 Hours, Rivets: 16/0  (2021-01-06)

Time: 5 Hours, Rivets:  0/0  (2021-01-08)

Time: 5 Hours, Rivets:  0/0  (2021-01-09)

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

Video

The flange of the firewall is about 1mm behind the forward edge of the side and bottom skin. Be careful to have the skins clecoed to the longerons.

With the sides drilled, and everything matched up, the bottom part can be drilled (two rows). It looks comfortable, but I accidentally got an Aluminum splinter in my eye and it took me 3 days to get it out.

In the forward side of the center section (just after the firewall) there are several auxiliary longerons and bulkheads that require creating specific parts. Here I’m working on an attach angle to fasten one of the longerons to the firewall.

I think according to the plans, you should do this while the fuselage in upside down, but that didn’t make sense to me, so I do all the stuff upright.

I didn’t buy a band-saw, because it seemed superfluous to me. However sometimes I do need to saw Aluminum.
Here I’m sawing the bottom longerons from a big piece of Aluminum angle. The hand saw works great, so I don’t regret not buying a band-saw.

Sometimes I need to get some parts from a specific subkit. I store those after inventory on my home-made attic.

The F-684 gusset is a tricky part. It needs to be installed on the inside on the firewall attach angle. I misinterpreted the drawing and fubar-ed them both. I’ve ordered new ones at Van’s and they are mailed to me shortly.

Time: 3 Hours, Rivets: 0/0 (2019-10-30)

Time: 6 Hours, Rivets: 0/0 (2019-11-03)

Video

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)

Video

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)

Video

According to the truck driver the crate was damaged when loading it in his truck.
At close-up there was a pretty big “dent” in the bottom side.

I immediately checked the kit parts close to the hole in the crate, but at that point everything inside seemed OK.

While preparing the parts for the Firewall I found this:

Wow, that really looks bad, so I created an email to Van’s, describing the damaged aluminum angles (stiffeners): F-601N-L, F-601N-R, F-719-L, F-719-R, F-772B-L (2x), F-772B-R (2x).
Before sending the email, I thought let’s check other parts and also: “why didn’t I found this during Inventory” and “These parts were NOT close to that hole”.
Confused as I was I didn’t find other parts that looked damaged. Not sure why, but I checked the drawings for those parts and saw that actually the parts where “bent” on the drawing too.

Turns out these Stiffeners are bent by design, to overlap other stiffeners. Pfffhhieww, let’s not send that email.