Sunday, September 8, 2019

Fuselage, FWD/MID Side Structure (Part 2)

Today’s session looks like it’s “beef” up the area where the Wings attach to the Fuselage.  Pictured below is the F-01442 Lower Drag Fittings.  

These two pieces get installed in the “lower” area between the Forward Fuselage Lower Structure and the Mid Fuselage Lower Structure as shown below.  The first picture is the left side.....

.....and this is the right side.  The plans call for the hardware to be installed as shown below.....so, I did.  However, I should have read JUST a little further in the plans prior to doing so.  NOTE:  Very shortly, these Lower Drag Fittings will get riveted with cherry rivets to the Center Bottom Skin and Forward Bottom Skins.  I want to prime the Fittings before they get installed.  So, now, I have to remove the hardware to prime the Fittings and then re-install the hardware.

These are the F-01464-L and -R Upper Drag Fittings.  These will be installed in the “upper” area between the Forward Fuselage Lower Structure and Mid Fuselage Lower Structure.

This is the left side.....

.....and this is the right side.  More on these two pieces later in the post.

Shown here are the F-01485-L & -R Center Section Side Panels still in their sweet blue plastic.

I removed the plastic and installed them to the Fuselage using as many clecos as possible (plans directed).  Here you can see both Side Plates clecoed to the  Fuselage.  The next step is to firmly clamp the Upper Drag Fittings to the Center Section Side Plates.  I used my blue squeeze clamps shown below.

Once everything was clecoed and clamped together, it was time to match-drill #40 the holes in the Center Section Side Plates into the Upper Drag Fittings.  Each side has 29 holes that need to be match-drilled.  Shown here is the left side.  I used a 6” #40 bit to drill most of the holes, but I had to use a 12” bit on a few of them.

After all the match-drilling was complete I removed the Side Plates and here is what the Upper Fittings looked like.  This is the “outboard” side of the -R Fitting.....

.....and the “inboard” side.

I then removed both Upper Drag Fittings and both Lower Drag Fittings.  Finally, I deburred all the holes in the Upper Drag Fittings and Center Section Side Panels.  I’ll pick it up here tomorrow.