December 10-17, 2008: Baggage Floor, Ribs & Seat Belt Attach Lugs

Over the course of the 7 days, I completed pages 21-02 through 21-04 in about 15 hours. No big challenges, just taking time to read the directions muliple times and then consult again when I start each step. I bought the "snips" recommended by Jim Cone and they have been very handy to have, saving time on the separation of parts. The only parts I primed on these pages were the baggage ribs (then only the mating surfaces) and the F-1206C (rear spar receptacles). The rear spar receptacles take a lot of deburring and since I envision these parts seeing lots of action with the installing and removing of the wings, I thought it best to prime. Everything on these pages went together without problems.

December 2, 2008: Baggage Floors

Next process complete starts on p. 21-02 and is about attaching the baggage floor skins to the center section aft bulkhead. This was quite the deal! 1st, having drilled the holes at some angle approaching 90 degrees created problems because the baggage floor skin fits better the closer the hole is to the 90 degrees. I needed to match drill a place or 2 (or 3) to make allow the rivets to go through. The challenge then became how to squeeze these rivets with little space to do so. I split a rivet and had to drill it out and redo. There are a couple more that I need to replace tomorrow. I'm trying to do this as per plans and the suggested tool list, which has you use a hand squeezer rather than a bucking bar and air gun. I found this all to work better by standing the bulkhead on its side with the baggage floors jutting up. This all took a long time (8 hours) over the course of 2 days.