SPOILER ALERT: I got this wrong
The centre console is an optional accessory, not part of the standard kit, and I’ll be honest and say that when I bought it I thought I was buying something to go between the seats to hold maps and stuff. But I’m very happy that it isn’t that, what it is is much better – it goes under the instrument panel and gives a nice look to the front as well as a place to put more things. Here’s what it looks like clecoed together.
The bottom and sides of the side panels are held in place inside the cabin via l-angles so the first task was to cut some angles to size and back drill to make the holes.
I marked and drilled some pilot holes in the other flange on the l-angles and put the whole thing into the cockpit so that I could find the position of the holes into the fuselage.
With a couple of holes made to keep the angle in place, I removed the console pieces and was able to drill the rest of the holes out to their final A4 rivet size.
There’s a flange on the centre piece that goes over the seat channel. This calls for 4 A4 rivets which kinda surprises me since it won’t make it straight forward to remove the console if, for example, something on the console needs replacing. Everything else is held together with screws. I marked and drilled the holes, anyway.
And so then came my moment of madness. While trying to remember how nutplates get assembled I determined that they needed to go onto the centre piece so I drilled the screw holes and then marked the location of the tiny holes for the plates. At this point I allowed myself to criticise the design of the console because the pre-drilled holes are just too close to the ends of the piece.
There’s a general adage in instrument flying that if something doesn’t sound right to you, you should check and maybe ask questions. And in this case my five year effort of almost building a plane hardly qualifies me to think that Zenith got something wrong! But I carried on, and riveted the nutplates in place.
It was at this point I decided to match up the console sides with the holes to make sure everything still went together. And then it hit me – the centre piece goes outside of the side pieces, putting the nut plates between the metal pieces. All the nutplates should be on the side pieces – where there is adequate room for them to be. No bad design, just bad builder.
In my defence it was quite humid, sweat was pouring down my face for about an hour but I had been bloody-mindedly determined to finish it before I left. Well, now I can finish it after Zenith ships me a couple of replacement items.
That will teach me to try and steal a few hours when I should be at home in the a/c.