Temporary Flooring And Riveting Prep

Today was spent prepping for riveting the two fuselage sections together. I spent time looking at other builders blogs to see how they accomplished it. A couple turned the whole fuselage on its side. That had advantages and I may do that when it comes time for systems installation. One did it with the whole fuse upside down on sawhorses. And others did it with the fuselage upright. l elected to try it that way. Which then necessitated a trip to Home Depot and HF for stuff. I needed some cheap plywood to fashion temporary flooring to cover the ribs, which individually are pretty thin and easily damaged. I went with two 2 x 4' sheets of 7/16" OSB. I wanted something fairly stiff that would spread my substantial weight over all the rib flanges. The last thing I need is damaging any preexisting QB structure. I also bought an additional cheap roller support from HF that I modified to offer more support to the aft fuselage. It has quick adjustability to any height that sawhorses lack. After a lot of measuring and jigsaw cuts I had 3 large pieces of flooring. I tried to cover as many rib flanges as I could. With the whole structure secured I gingerly stepped into it to test it out, gradually adding my weight. It seemed solid and I didn't detect any flexing or "give" that would indicate I was bending or distorting underlying structure. Confident that it was solid I knelt in the baggage compartment and mentally rehearsed where I needed to put tools for quick access and how I would orient my arms and upper body for many challenging rivets. I also got a chance to peer around the backside of the bulkheads to inspect there and also add a few more clecos. Time was spent in the plans reviewing the specific order of riveting and adding blue tape to holes that don't get rivets at this time.