I've been very slowly working on the remaining fuselage tasks - between shelter-in-place, losing my 15-year-old cat to cancer (I took July off to take care of and spend more time with him), and a lot going on at work, I've been far less productive on the plane than I'd have hoped.
R.I.P., friend
So, when time permitted, I started match-drilling the metal parts into the cabin cover. First, that involved using some spreaders to push it up/out flush with the skins:
Cabin cover clamped in place and pushed up against the tailcone skin
Cabin cover flush against the tailcone top skin
I match-drilled the side and tailcone top skins into the cabin cover:
Fuselage and tailcone skins match-drilled and clecoed to the cabin cover
Then the bulkhead side channels into the cabin cover door flanges:
Aft bulkhead side channel match-drilled and clecoed to the cabin cover
Wife match-drilling aft bulkhead side channel into cabin cover
And finally the bottom flange of the door opening into the mid-cabin deck and longerons:
Bottom door opening flange match-drilled and clecoed to the mid-cabin deck and longerons
To my own surprise and relief, the holes did line up nicely right at the center of the longeron flange :)
Next was the forward bulkhead side channels, including the bent top portion:
Forward bulkhead side channel match-drilled and clecoed to the cabin cover
Bent portion of the forward bulkhead side channel and gusset
The right side had almost no gap with the gusset in place, but the left side had a significant gap (meaning I sanded too much?). That doesn't matter much, since it gets filled with structural filler later:
Right bulkhead side channel, with no gap to the cabin cover
Left bulkhead side channel, with a significant gap to the cabin cover
It was then time to final-drill those holes to size (#12 on the bulkhead, #19 on the mid-cabin deck), which became significantly easier after I removed the forward top skin:
Door opening flanges final-drilled to the metal structure
And finally, I countersunk the holes for screws to sit flush (contrary to what the manual says, there is room for a countersink cage on the bottom flange):
Bottom door opening flange with countersunk holes for screws
Screw sitting flush on the bottom flange of the cabin cover door opening
Aft door flange holes after countersinking
Screws sitting flush against the aft door flange
The forward vertical flange is where the thickness difference is most apparent, and the countersink is clearly at a slant relative to the gel-coated surface, and those holes required me to at least hand-tighten the screws in order to see if they were really flush:
Screws sitting flush against the forward door flange
Screws sitting flush against the outboard side of the tapered flange
On the side that had a gap, I used a .125" piece of aluminum to make sure the countersink bit had some backing:
Aluminum backing for the countersink bit
I skipped the parts of this section involving the windshield and rear windows for now (I'll get the Cee Bailey's transparencies later), and I'm waiting for the Aerosport overhead console before I drill the center cabin brace. There's still a lot to do here - countersinking all the side and top holes, drilling holes for antennas, adding antenna ground planes, giving it a smoother finish in areas that won't be covered up, etc.
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