Author Archives: pclifton

Another short night. I started out deburring the edges of the mid-cabin braces. Frankly, I think this is a weird time to do this, but I might as well keep working in the order of the instructions, I guess. Apparently … Continue reading →

Pretty good night’s work, at least by after-work standards. I managed to get all the rivets in the firewall done. The vast majority of the rivets can be back riveted, though an added complication is that the firewall has a … Continue reading →

First order of business tonight was to finish bolting the weldments to both gear towers. When I did the right tower last night, I actually took the time to torque all the bolts, but tonight I refrained from doing that. … Continue reading →

Finally, a good day’s work, Unfortunately, it wasn’t all fun and games, as we’ll soon get to. I wanted to get started priming as soon as possible, since I know the epoxy primer takes longer to spray than the rattle … Continue reading →

Started out today by finishing up the riveting on the forward floor assembly. There were only eight rivets left, through the two intercostal ribs, but getting to them was an interesting undertaking. Actually, even access wasn’t bad at all, it … Continue reading →

Pretty much just a token hour in the shop tonight. Since Houston drivers can’t handle wet roads without ramming each other, I stayed at work a little late to let traffic die off. When I got out to the garage … Continue reading →

So tonight I switched gears back to the forward flow assembly. First order of business was to rivet some nutplates to the lower flanges of both crossmembers. I believe these nutplates are where the gear leg attachment covers will mount. … Continue reading →

Tonight mostly consisted of getting the parts I have lying around fully prepped and ready for priming this weekend. I double-checked the flush screw countersinks in the gear tower angles and found that they were a little shallow, so I … Continue reading →

Not much to report tonight. I finished drilling the nutplate holes in the remaining three angle pieces for the gear towers, then went back and countersunk all the nutplate rivet holes. Absent a bit of final prep work, all the … Continue reading →

I’d kind of hoped to get all the nutplate holes drilled tonight on the gear towers, but that didn’t really work out. It was kind of tedious to get stuff lined up on the doublers – just try holding a … Continue reading →