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Skinning the Fuselage |
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| January 2004 | |||||
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The skinning process starts with the tail cone skin. You have to massage the skin a little to get it to conform to the bulkheads. The bulkhead flanges also have to be formed a little since the skin tapers towards the back. After placing the bulkhead on the skeleton you use a marker and outline the stringers and bulkheads from the inside. You then mark and drill the skin for the hole pattern then re-mount the skin and back drill through the skeleton. As you can see in the right picture, I mis-marked the skin and drilled some extra holes. To fix that I will glass the inside of the skin then fill the holes with micro. It will be unnoticeable once the plane is painted. |
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Cutting the opening for the tailwheel is a process of trial and error. Unfortunately I should have cut the skin in an elipse shape so it would form to the weldment a little better. Otherwise, it doesn't look bad. | ||||
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Next the bottom skin is fitted. The skin shifted a little bit but once the side skins are on it won't be visible. |
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I used some PVC tubing and straps to hold down the skins for drilling. I back drilled the skins from the insides but it was difficult to do near the rear bulkheads where the tail wheel weldment is located. | ||||
| December 2004 | |||||
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March 2007 |
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Finally! After too long of a delay, we are back to work on the airplane. Burning the midnight oil drilling, deburring, and bucking rivets. |
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The fuselage is a big piece and there are about 8 large panels that need to get riveted. That's a bunch of rivets! We managed to complete the riveting process over the course of about 4 nights work. |
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It's time to make the jig. I've seen variations of this system
before but my buddy, Jeff Bordelen was selling this version so I
shamelessly bought some raw materials from him and, with a few
modifications of my own, built some rotating stands.
The idea is to allow me easier access to the inside of the fuselage when it's off the jig. |
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The pieces are in place so it's time to use my new (to me) Miller HF 250 Tig welder and burn some metal. |
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I wish I knew what I was doing. I suppose the welds don't have to be pretty at this point, just strong. Notice I'm not posting any pictures of the beads. |
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This is the first time in many years that the jig has been empty. You can see the front of the rotisiree in the background | Here is Beth giving a demonstration on how easy it is to rotate the fuselage. |
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The fuselage is a few inches to high right now and it will get even worse when I put the wheels on the stands. I will probably whack off a few inches of the vertical stand and re-weld them after I get the wheels on. |
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I've got to get myself in the pictures from time to time to prove that I'm building the airplane. The old FAA need their proof. | ||||