Fuselage

I wasn't planning on doing this, but I've been looking at my firewall. My original primer on the stiffeners just doesn't look good next to the rest of the topcoat-painted parts of the interior. So I decided to take the time to take the firewall off the fuselage one more time (fortunately, I hadn't permanently riveted it on yet), mask it, and paint it with my interior topcoat. So over the last couple of days, I've been doing that, along with more riveting.

It's quite a job to carefully mask off the stainless steel firewall from the stiffeners that were riveted on months ago. My advice to anyone building is to choose an interior paint and color when you start the fuselage, and paint these stiffeners before riveting them to the firewall. It will save you a lot of time later.

Nevertheless, it's done. I am pleased with the results. So I put this back on the fuselage, clecoed all the forward fuse parts together and started more riveting.

Daniel has helped me, Luke has helped me, and there were some rivets that I was able to do solo. It's gradually coming together.

Except for the double row of rivets on the F-706 bulkhead, the right side skin is finished all the way up to the F-902 bulkhead. I'll be able to pull the skin back enough to apply firewall sealant.

Same thing with the left side skin, except I still have to do the rest of the baggage area rivets, too.

I was able to solo rivet the two center bottom floor stiffeners in place. The outer left and right ones will have to wait for the bottom skin to be in place first. I'm now ready to mix and apply the firewall sealant and install the bottom forward skin. When I'm able to snag someone for a few minutes of help, I still have lots of rivets to pound, too.

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