Fuselage: Mid Fuselage Lower Structure. Priming.

The mid fuselage lower structure parts have been primed.

First the center bottom skin.

Then the rest of the myriad of parts.

The seat ribs and a few other small parts from this section were actually primed in the previous bolus.

Now I have quite the collection of, drilled, deburred, dimpled and countersunk parts all ready for riveting.

Fuselage: Forward Mid Fuselage Bulkheads. Priming.

Nothing more exciting than priming parts.  But, I hadn't primed anything since 30-Jun-14.  So, my two part epoxy primer had been sitting, untouched and sealed in their cans for nearly 5 months.  Wow, the contents of the Part A can turned to pure sludge.  All the solids settled.  I had to don gloves and get my hands in there to break it up before I could even attempt to mix it (I'm not that only one to experience this).  Took a good 30 minutes before having something that was reasonably mixed.  After finishing this priming session, there were about 13 fluid ounces of final product remaining, so I chose to toss it in favor of using the additional amount I ordered last week to finish the fuselage. 

Beginning.

End.

I sneaked in the seat ribs and some a few other small parts from the next section.

Fuselage: Mid fuselage lower structure.

As I wait out the colder weather so I can prime parts and rivet, I sneak ahead and prepare the next bolus of parts for priming.  To that end, section 26 is a 22 page beast, filled with a multitude of parts big and small, each with various steps towards being ready for riveting. 

One thing to keep in mind is that the #40 holes in the bottom flanges of all the ribs must be dimpled to accept the center bottom skin.  In most cases, that is not stated in the plans.  If you're uncertain, skip ahead to see where the skin is dimpled and where it meets the ribs to convince yourself.

The F-01415-L/R outboard seat ribs must be fluted to conform to the curvature profile of the skin.  Step 1 on 26-06 describes the process required to morph a straight rib into a properly curved one.  It's a protracted series of repetitive steps:   Flute, cleco until there is resistance, un-cleco, re/de/new-flute, etc.  Here's what it looks like with the lower flange properly fluted.  The upper flange is then matched to the lower.

The F-01443 center section lower doublers must be countersunk for an AD4 dimpled 0.025" skin.  These doublers are about as thick as an AN426AD4 head so the plans require the doublers to be cleco'd to each other to provide more material to keep the pilot from elongating the holes.  When you get one side countersunk and switch to the other, elongation is essentially incipient.  Go slow.  One might consider just buying another F-01443 part from Van's for the sole purpose of providing more thickness. 

The F-01448B gear brace bars are quite thick.  As such, following manufacture, they come out rather warped (thankfully, in only one dimension).  Left: One out-of-the-box and another after straightening.  Middle: After straightening both.  Right:  The method I used to straighten (originally described here).

Once straightened, the entire gear brace assembly can be cleco'd together and final-drilled (note, you'll need a 1/8" cobalt bit to complete this step, which is inconveniently sized between a #30 and #31).

At first (and second, and third) glance, the F-01484 center bottom skin looks symmetrical.  And it is, but in shape only.  There are exactly 8 unique holes that are right of centerline.  Below, I've circled the right-side-only holes which will later accommodate the comm antenna (the other 5 are non-dimpled drain holes as described in Figure 1 on 26-11 ), thus the image shows the skin from the top (that is to say the side for your butt and feet).  A recent thread on VAF discusses the subtle asymmetry of the skin.

After a concentrated hour deburring the myriad of holes in that skin, my hands howled weary and weak with soreness.  With such strong protestation in...uh..."hand"...thus ended the weekend's work in favor of several days of healing.

Fuselage: Forward Mid Fuselage Bulkheads.

There are a few steps in this section that benefit from a deliberate approach before executing:  Check, double check, check again.

The bearing bracket assemblies.  There are four of these, two pairs of each.  Only one side on each pair is countersunk.  And it's the side that doesn't hold the bearing.  Additionally, only the outboard sides get #19 countersunk for #8 screws (so one -L and one -R part).  These assemblies are an attach point for the control columns (see page 29-05).

Update 27-Nov-14:  As I was riveting the mid fuse bulkhead parts together today, I came to realize that I should not have countersunk the outboard AD4 holes on these assemblies (left image).  Indeed, the plans are clear on this.  Slashes (right image) shows the AD4 holes that should not be countersunk.  Easy ~$15 of replacement parts to fix.

Similar deal for the bulkhead bars.  These will capture and bolt on to the rear spar of the wing (remember that "critical hole" you reamed back on page 15-04?).  These can use some minor straightening.  I suggest this approach, used to straighten the horizontal attach bars.

It helps to have a countersink extension (needed in Section 28 anyway) to countersink the top hole in each of the F-01441-L/R bearing bracket braces (see page 25-05), as the flange impedes cage access.  I used a pilotless, zero-flute countersink, which is potentially disastrous if not done carefully.  By the way, if you're having trouble locating F-14143 (bearing bracket angle), it's in bag 3062.

Be sure you countersink the correct holes on the F-01404D-L/R side angles.  I originally marked off the wrong set of holes and caught the oversight on the "measure twice, cut once" step.

Here are the flush rivets holes in the bulkhead top and bottom flanges after countersinking and spot priming.  You'll want to grab a 0.311" reamer (Avery's or McMaster-Carr) for a few holes on these and on the F-01405 bulkhead assembly.

All parts are prepped for Section 25.  Next step is priming and assembly.  However, I will prep some parts in the next section too so I can more efficiently use the time spent in overhead setting up the priming accoutrements.

Fuselage: Fuselage kit inventory (mostly) complete.

Spent several hours inventorying the fuselage kit this afternoon.  All major parts are accounted for.  However, I did not receive a hardware bag manifest, so I could not count screws, nuts, etc.  Easy fix by a call to the home base on Monday.

I remember when I received the wing kit back in Apr-13, I was overwhelmed by all the parts and the unfamiliarity with everything.  It's interesting to see how the fuselage kit, though chock-full of parts, is not so psychologically daunting as it might be had I no experience with the prior kits.

Going through the inventory process is like a social meet-and-greet mixer where I get to know my new friends.  This kit is unique in that now you get to see the ergonomic elements of the aircraft:  The "human" parts that connect one to the reality of flight like control sticks, rudder pedals, vents, instrument panel, etc.  It's starting to become more personal and real.

Lots of fun hardware.  Brake master cylinders, fuel pump, flap actuator, etc.

Step attach weldments, engine mount brackets, control stick bases, flap crank, etc.

Instrument panel flange.

Sticks, vents and rudder pedals.

Shrouds and firewall parts.  Various parts stacks.

Center section bulkheads.

They pack the bulkheads by wrapping them together in plastic wrap.  No padding is placed between them so they bite into each other during the vibration of shipping.  I'll have to sand these out and spot prime the missing alodyne.

Here's where the rest of the parts and skins await their turn in the wing and empennage crates.  I kept a lot of things wrapped up since I probably won't get to them prior moving over to the new house hangar.