Dave’s RV-7A Building Log

I started out the day thinking I was going to do a major priming session, but the weather never really cooperated. It was unseasonably warm, near 60 degrees, but it was drizzling on and off all day. I washed a bunch of parts, but thankfully didn’t do the etching step. The etching and priming steps have to be within something like a few hours of each other.

Instead I re-arranged the garage now that I know how big the fuselage is going to be. With the new arrangement, it should be easier to work on the fuse and it will have plenty of room to grow.

I did a first pass on deburring the edges of the skins with the Scotchbrite wheel. They still need more clean up.

I pulled out the firewall and started deburring the new holes in it. It also needed some countersinking along the bottom reinforcement angle.

Trying to figure out what needs to be dimpled vs. countersunk vs. left along is getting very confusing. It’s also hard to keep track of all the little tasks that need to be done. Looking over the plans, I noticed a few things that need to be drilled out for vent and fuel lines. The instructions are really worthless at this point. There are dozens of little notes on the plans, drill this, enlarge that, don’t rivet this. I thought Dan C was going overboard making a list at this point, but I ended up doing the same thing.

Did a major countersinking session. I just thought there was a lot of countersinking on the wing spars. I countersunk the longerons and finished cleaning them up, sanding out some minor scratches. The angle material for the longerons is very soft and prone to scratches.

I also did more countersinking on the stiffeners, aux longerons, and doubler plates. I’m glad I bought an extra countersinking cage, because now I have one for the 3/32″ cutter and one for the 1/8″ cutter. It’s easy to switch back and forth.

I pulled out the aft canopy decks, finished trimming them, and deburred them.

Started countersinking the holes in the stiffener angles. I started a pile of parts that are essentially ready for priming.

I’ve been debating about what to paint the interior with. I decided it would be easiest to paint the parts before they get assembled, as long as I can keep from scratching them up. Even then, I’m planning on covering most of the interior. The paint is mainly for the few parts that will still show.

I thought about using Aircraft Finishing Systems 1-part polurethane. I’ve been using their primer, and it’s been working pretty good. A few builders have used Rust-oleum, which would be even easier. I picked up a can of satin black at the hardware store and test painted a few parts. I’ll let them dry a few days and see how resistant they are to scratching.

Deburred one longeron, and did part of the other one. After dreading the deburring for so long, I have to admit it’s going pretty fast.

Not many pictures for a while. I’m just deburrin’, dimplin’, primin’, and the one I really don’t enjoy, countersinkin’.

Deburred the edges and removed all of the nasty gummy labels from the small parts of the forward fuselage. I really wish Van’s would use a better label. I’ve probably spent 10 hours on this project just removing labels.

I started the long process of prepping the fuselage parts. I deburred the holes in most of the small parts. I also marked where counter-sinking will be needed, mainly so I didn’t bother deburring those spots.

We’re having some record-setting high temperatures here in Seattle in the low 60’s. I’m going to try to prep at least the non-alclad parts including the longerons for priming this weekend. I need to take advantage of this weather.

I drilled a few more parts (the aft straps for the corner ribs) and started taking everything apart. Julie helped uncleco parts and I caught them from inside. It came apart remarkably fast. I realized that I forgot to drill the aft end of the baggage ribs, so I stopped just short of separating the aft and center sections.

The horizontal baggage ribs and the arm rests have this weird notch at both ends. Not sure why it’s there.

Not much plane-building happened this weekend. It was the annual boat show weekend where the guys druel over million dollar yachts and bar hop around Seattle all night in the freezing rain. I also checked out two RV-7’s in the area, one flying and one being built, and talked RV’s for quite a while with Bob and Mike. It’s very helpful to be able to see other projects that are further along. It’s especially inspiring to see a nice finished product like Mike’s.

I did manage to fit and drill the baggage ribs and drilled out the remaining holes in the fuselage, including the joints between the sections and the seat rib to side skin holes. I just have a few more odds and ends to fit and drill and then things will start getting disassembled for prep.

Did a bunch of miscellaneous stuff on the fuselage. I drilled the inner floor stiffeners to the support angle on the firewall. The new angle drill attachment was very handy for that. Julie helped me drill the outer two floor stiffeners. I then drilled the straps that hold the longerons to the F-704 bulkhead. While I was at it, I drilled most of both side skins to the underlying structure. There’s more drilling left on the fusleage than I realized. I should be able to start taking things apart after another few hours.

Went to the EAA chapter 326 meeting last night. It’s a great group with something like 50 RVs being built, but it’s just so darn far away from my house. I went to something like 3 meetings last year.

Tonight I drilled the middle two forward floor stiffeners. (Edit 4/26/2005: If you’re using the Airflow Performance fuel pump kit from Van’s, make sure the pump base fits between the middle stiffeners. I had the stiffeners 1/8″ too close together for some reason. Or you can use the forward cabin cover to see how far apart to space the stiffeners.) I ordered a right angle drill attachment from Cleaveland last week and it showed up today, not a moment too soon. I needed it to drill the aft end of the stiffeners to the cover brackets. Cleaveland doesn’t include the right angle attachment in their standard tool kit, and I’ve gotten around it so far using the long bits or other work-arounds. I really don’t see how I could have drilled those holes without it tonight, though. The second picture shows the little joggle that needs to be filed in the forward end to clear the firewall angle, as has been documented on other builder sites.

I didn’t order Cleaveland’s whole right angle drill kit. I just ordered the attachment and one drill bit of each standard size (40, 30, 21, 19, 12, 10). The thing worked really well.