Day 183

Worked on a few odd and ends today. First thing this morning, we installed the 14 rivet nuts in the bottom of the rear fuselage for the inspection hatches. Not sure why it doesn’t have you so this back when riveting on this section. Truth be told, we couldn’t find in the manuals at all for this to be done. But we felt now was as good a time as any as we’re working to be able to paint the plane soon. So these holes needed to be drilled out to size for the M4 rivet nuts, deburred, and installed with red loctite applied to each one. (All while laying on your back with your arms up in the air because I still feel it should have been done much sooner. Haha)

We also prepped the inspection hatch covers (including the ones for the fuel tank inspection hatches on the wings) by drilling the holes bigger to accommodate the M4 bolts then deburred them. We then sanded both sides with 220 sandpaper to make sure there would be a really strong bond with the paint, being these are meant to be removed and handled. Also we will be painting both sides so that there will not be any chance of the paint peeling away from the thin edges. We then finished off by scuffing them with red scotch bright.

Today we also prepped the inside of the front top skin and the lower dashboard mounts for paint. The inside of the front top skin gets paired because you can see down through the defrost vents as well as the top edges stick slightly higher than the dashboard near the canopy. The black will look much better than being left the composite color. It will make everything bled together much better. Same goes for the dashboard mounts. They can be seen u underneath the dash, as the upholstery only come up to them. The cockpit and fuselage had to be taped off well after everything was abraded and wiped down to insure there would not be any overspray on anything we didn’t want color on. A primer coat was then applied and allowed to flash before the satin black was sprayed on to finish. It all turned out very well. Very excited to see how it looks with the dash in place once it’s had ample time to cure.