Yesterday my compressor got sick, every time the tank fills with air the safety valve opens so it was a short day as I couldn’t do any of the gear strut drilling that still remained. We took it to a repair shop and in the meantime one of my brother in laws has loaned me his.
A meaty beast it is!
So without a compressor I went back to the forward fuselage where I still needed to join the forward angles to their corresponding l-angles (I am sure you all remember this!). I had already drawn a rivet line, I just had to mark the rivet spots.
I trimmed them so that there were no overlaps at the skin edge that might cause some friction and wear the metal away, and then I trial fit them inside the fuselage.
You might also remember that the left motor mount had not been drilled in the correct place but after some hard thought I decided to use the existing mount with a new hole, the proper hole being far enough away from the wrong one. So I clamped it firmly in place and drilled the bolt holes.
I test fit a bolt and drilled everything to final size
I then did the same with the lower engine mounts, clamping them in place and back drilling through the holes in the bottom skin, enlarging to 3/16″.
All four engine mounts have now been drilled and can be installed when the rest of the firewall is put together.
The compressor had arrived with great timing and I was able to return to the last few holes in the gear strut fitting. First I enlarged the earlier holes to size 20 that match the ones in the seat base. Then I took two l-angles pilot-drilled on both flanges and back drilled into the gear channel and gear strut fitting.
The compressor also meant I could rivet the forward angles, I did not relish the idea of doing those by hand,
and complete:
Other than deburring and priming I am ready to bolt/rivet the gear strut fittings in place and rivet the inside of the forward fuselage.