This morning I completed the longeron section. Yesterday I opened the first 12" of each longeron from 90 degrees to 95.4 degrees. Last evening I bent the curve into the right longeron. It took an hour and a half along with a lot of effort and head scratching to get it done, but at the end of the day I was satisfied with the results. This morning I bent the curve into the left longeron. I guess it is because of my experience last evening that helped, but this morning I bent the left longeron in about 30 minutes. After bending the left longeron to match the canopy deck profile I checked it against the right longeron. They were almost identical. I tweeked them and compared them against the canopy deck templates and everything is OK.
After getting the curves and bends to match the templates and the longerons to match each other I proceeded to match drill the #30 holes in the canopy decks to the longerons. I clamped a deck template to each longeron and match drilled and clecoed them in place as I worked. I then removed the clecos and deburred all of the parts. I used a Scotch Brite pad to clean-up the surface of the longerons and then clecoed the canopy decks to the appropriate longeron.
This afternoon I started to prep the parts and pieces for the assembly of the fuselage sides. I prepped and primed the various parts needed for the assembly.
I installed the mid fuselage brace and roll bar attachment plates. I countersunk the attachment plates and installed nutplates as instructed and riveted them in place.
This evening I began assembling the fuselage side components. I installed the forward bulkhead side channels to the step bulkhead. I riveted the arm rest brackets to the mid bulkhead side channels. I then riveted the mid bulkhead side channels to the seat bulkhead.
I clecoed the armrest in place and match drilled the #30 holes into the forward bulkhead channels and the fuselage side channels. I removed the arm rests and deburred the newly drill holes. I then riveted the arm rests in place.
The last thing I did was put the left and right longerons with the canopy decks clecoed to them in place. The fuselage is beginning to take shape.
