Fuselage

Over the last week or so I've done a lot of boring prep work getting a big batch of stuff ready for priming and painting. There's nothing really photographically interesting about scuffing aluminum parts with scotchbrite pads, cleaning and degreasing it, and so on. So I wasn't much in the mood for pictures. I just wanted to get this stuff done. Another factor playing into this kind of work is the weather. As the fall season progresses into miserable winter weather, it's hard to get outside to prime and paint, which is my preference whenever possible. The days are short, and it's often raining or windy. So I look for weather breaks and windows of opportunity. If all that fails, I paint in the garage and try to ventilate the fumes.

For my log record, here's a list of the work done:

11-19-2009 Scuffed and cleaned the baggage bulkheads. All parts are now ready for priming and/or topcoat paint.

11-21-2009 Primed baggage bulkheads. Deburred seat floors and hinges. Countersunk for nutplate rivets. Trimmed, deburred, and prepped seat parts and hinges.

11-22-2009 Topcoat-painted baggage bulkheads, and the forward and aft seat floors.

11-23-2009 Riveted plastic parts to baggage bulkheads. Riveted nutplates to forward seat floors.

11-24-2009 Riveted hinges to the seat floors. Then riveted seat floors to the seat ribs in the cabin. All done except for nutplates.

Well, I finally have some interesting pictures for you. Here are the aft seat floors, all painted with the hinges riveted in place, sitting on my workbench. Below, they're riveted in place in the cabin, except for the tunnel cover nutplates.

Below are some shots of how the baggage bulkheads turned out after final painting.

Above is a close-up of the plastic parts riveted in place on the baggage bulkhead. What you can't see are the nutplates behind the lower panel. The top piece will screw in place with #8 screws where you see the cleco and empty hole above.

<< Previous | Home | Next >>