Today, I went straight out to the garage after getting home from work, so I could go ahead and shoot primer on the pieces I cleaned last night. I gave them all a god acetone wipedown before priming since they’d been sitting out all night. Probably overkill (a repetitive theme in this blog), but just for good measure. I then took a break to install some cosmetic stuff on my car, then I retired inside to eat dinner while the primer dried.
After dinner, it was time to start putting stuff together. First up is the rear spar bulkhead, just riveting the carry through bars, the corner gussets, and the rear center seat belt anchor in place:
Next the forward side seat belt anchors go together:
And then it’s time to rivet the floor angles to the forward inboard ribs, along with the seat belt anchor assemblies and the little corner angle pieces I made a while back. This is where most of the night went; there are multiple rivet callouts to keep track of, various pieces to get aligned, and plus I accidentally shot a couple rivets without putting a needed piece in assembly, so I took care of my evening rivet drill-out quota right there.
Here’s the left rib assembly in the vise while I’m riveting:
For my final act of the night, I clecoed the two rib assemblies to the rear spar bulkhead along with the corresponding aft seat ribs. The next task will be to get these guys riveted in place:
It does occur to me that I need to rivet the aileron trim bits to these ribs as well, but I don’t think there’s any special hurry on that. The trim kit is designed to be installed on a complete aircraft, so I don’t think I really need to stress about getting the stuff riveted before I move forward with the rib assembly. I’ll think it over overnight and probably look at the trim kit instructions before deciding what to do next.