Progress is a little glacial right now for some reason, will be lucky to make December 3015 at this rate, but every part taken off the hangar floor is one less part to go. In this installment we finish the monumental task of finishing the door sills.
Last we left, I was stuck thinking how to drill some of the inside holes in the cabin frame because there was no way to get a drill in there, not even my angle drill attachment. But during moving things around to make space for the wings I came upon this kit that was given to me a long time ago by my father in law.
And it was a perfect fit for the job, and the holes were soon drilled
Before riveting the sills in place we decided to see how the doors and windows would fit in case we wanted to leave any rivets out. At this point we “discovered” that we had two passenger side doors, one of which didn’t fit at all.
I took a bunch of pictures, started composing the email to Zenith and wondering what they would say about noticing this mistake so long after purchase but by then Allen had stared at them long enough to realise that if we rotated one of them 180 degrees it would turn into a very nice looking pilot side door. That would have been one embarrassing email to send. I blame it on the fumes from the Zinc primer we had used on the door sills.
Panic over, and no need to withhold any rivets so I went ahead and put the door sills permanently on the frame.
Just for grins, I got the top window out to see how it would sit. Looks good to me.
In other areas of the hangar, we rigged up the elevator so that it is held in the neutral position. This will come in handy when I have a go at the control cables.
We took this hint from the videos – used a piece of wood and a ratchet strap to keep it in place.
I think next up will be the forward top skin which will allow me to do the windshield which will allow me to do the doors. But we’ll see.