Some good and bad today. I finished fabricating and installing the F-684 gusset for the right side. As I had hoped, it went much faster and easier than the first one yesterday. Then, my streak of big flubbups continued, as I ruined more parts. I can't seem to get through a weekend lately without ruining a part or parts. But at least my dumb mistakes continue to be relatively inexpensive ones.
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First thing today, I finished fabricating and installing the F-684 corner gusset for the right side. I didn't mention or show anything yesterday about how I drilled the part, so I thought I'd do that today. The part is clamped in place after all the trimming, bending and fitting. Since I had already drilled the holes through the side skin into the corner bracket (which you actually aren't supposed to have done yet), there were holes in the corner bracket to backdrill through if you can only find a way to get a drill in there. Well, I unclecoed the side skin enough to pull it back so I could get my right-angle drill in there. It really worked perfect for this job.
Moving right along, I pulled the 5' piece of 1 X 1-1/4" aluminum angle stock and began fabricating the lower forward longerons. The drawings show you where to trim away one side of the angle on one end. I carefully did this, and spent a lot of time filing them nice and smooth and cleaning them up. Only then did I discover that I had made two left-hand ones, instead of a left and right one. DANG IT!! There's just no way to fix it once this is done. It's like the old saying "I measured and cut it three times and it's still too short!" I'm spending more time than ever studying the drawings and doing everything I can to avoid these blunders, but they still happen. I won't whine too much this time, though. The parts I ruin are cheap ones. And I'm very fortunate to live close to Vans. I'll be driving down there again next week.
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