Baggage Bulkhead Upholstery

Today I spent a few hours working on the baggage bulkhead upholstery attachment.  I decided to put four of the five screws to attach the upholstery panel to the bulkhead along the bottom part of the panel.  Because the panel attaches to the flat of the bulkhead and also the corrugated access panel to the tailcone area I decided to put in some attachment straps.  The straps go between 2-of the corrugations in 2-places.  First I attached the tailcone access panel to the rear bulkhead.  I cut some straps out of some scrap material and bent them to fit the angle of the corrugations.  I drilled and clecoed the strap to the left side of the access panel.

I then began working on the strap for the right side of the panel.  I cut and bent the strap to fit the panel.  I drilled, clecoed and then riveted the right strap in place.  After riveting the right strap I realized the strap was riveted to the both stationary and permanent parts of the panel. I will not be able to remove the panel if the strap is riveted to the permanent portion the remains in place.  Accordingly I drilled out the rivet and installed a nutplate so the strap can be removed with the access panel.  I had previously drilled the upholstered panel for the 5-attachment screws and had transferred the location of the holes onto the straps and the surrounding bulkhead.

I then proceeded to install nutplates on the straps.  After attaching the nutplates to the straps I drilled and installed nutplates on the flat bulkhead panels.  Because holding the upholstered panel to the bulkhead is not a structural challenge I opted to use an unorthodox method of installing the nutplates.  I drilled a ¼" hole for the center of each nutplate.  I also drilled the holes in the ears of the nutplates to #30.  

I then attached the nutplates to the forward side of the bulkhead with the body of the nutplates through the ¼" holes.  All 3-of these nutplates are installed with LP-3 rivets.  Because the upholstery panel will be going over the corrugated panel and will not be laying flat I decided it was not necessary to have the nutplates on the other side of the bulkhead or attach them with flush head rivets.  At this point I began to reinstall the removable portion of the access panel and then realized the with the tank in place I will not be able to remove the screw attaching the lower part of the right strap to the permanent portion of the bulkhead cover.  What an idiot.  Tomorrow I will drill out the other rivet attaching the strap to the removable portion of the access panel and install a nutplate there also.  That way I can remove the panel without removing the tank.  

Before leaving today I riveted the nutplates back onto the attachment points of the fuel tank.  

Tomorrow will be a new day and I will once again work on the bulkhead, the upholstery panel and see if I can finally get it right.  I am also working on a method of reinforcing the panel to make the parts lineup correctly and present a flat panel.  Right now the panel sort of bends in when it is screwed in place.