The weather looks acceptable for priming, so I disassembled the center fuselage parts and washed them. It was a step backward to disassembled them, since I just assembled them and haven’t drilled them out yet. However, I want to prime the parts while I can. This should be the last big priming batch for a while.
Finished deburring the seat ribs and clecoed the center fuselage together.
I started to cleco on the bottom skin, but realized I’m running short on clecos. I’d better drill out the tail cone, recover the clecos, and then come back to the center fuselage.
Deburred most of the seat ribs. That is truly a boring task. I keep hoping that the deburring will end soon, but I still have to do all of the fuselage skins, the remaining fuselage parts and then everything in the finish kit. There’s still lots of deburring ahead.
On the bright side, I rented a C-172 and flew around a bit today. It’s been too long since I’ve flown. I’ve been dragging on the project a bit lately. That flight helped me remember what the goal is.
Finished reconstructing the two replacement ribs and then deburred the baggage ribs. The weather was good enough for priming today, but I had nothing ready to go. I’m going to work on getting some parts ready to prime for when the weather turns decent again.
Started re-fabricating the two center seat ribs that I messed up. I deburred the edges, cut out the extra part in the middle and laid out lines for cutting the access pieces.
I caught the bug that my daughter had last week, so I’ve been laying low. I did manage to do a little bit of deburring on the baggage ribs.
I worked quite a while on smoothing the edges of the seat ribs and lightening holes. Next I squared the flanges and fluted the bottom flange. The other flanges look straight, so I don’t think they need fluting. I started fitting the ribs to the center section.
I made one mistake along the way when cutting the center seat rib flanges for the wiring conduit. I cut away too much of the flange and left a very small edge distance for one of the rivets. I’m trying to decide whether to just order new parts or to leave it as is. There are 4 other rivets and two bolts holding the rib to the bulkhead, so I don’t think it’s much of an issue. Versus $17 each for new parts and peace of mind. I’d hate to have that little problem trip up an inspection later when the ribs are a permanent part of the plane. [I went ahead and ordered replacement parts.]
I also pulled out the baggage ribs and started looking at those. The instructions call for a 1-5/8″ hole in two of the ribs and the plans call for 1-1/2″ for the steps. Since the tube on the steps is already 1-1/2″, I went with the larger dimension. It’s very cool that they pre-punched a pilot hole for it. I whipped out the fly cutter and cut the holes.
The aft bulkheads are waiting for priming, which means I need some nice weather. I also decided to wait on bending the longerons until I need them. They take up a lot less space when they’re straight. So I moved on to the center section.
I fabricated the spacers.
I then pulled the seat ribs off the shelf and started working on trimming them as outlined on the plans. I have two tips for the ribs that get cut open. First, don’t throw away the little part you cut out. You actually need it. I almost really screwed that up. And secondly, drill the little part that covers the gap before you cut the rib. It’s just easier that way. Other than that, the rib trimming is pretty easy. I took the picture right after I did the rough cut, but before I cleaned it up.
I can see there is a lot of deburring coming soon: seat ribs, baggage ribs, and there’s still more parts on the shelves. I thought the boring deburring was mostly done when I finished the wing ribs.