10-07, Lower Skin Installation

Nice day in the garage / shop by myself.  I had a few personal stressors, and working to some classic rock and a compressor chugging in the background did marvels for my mood (not so much for my headache, though.  Some ibuprofen, caffeine and a nap got me ready for work.)

This is the first time my project has seen the light of day.  We are looking at the left side of the bottom of the airplane.  It is currently upside down.  There are a row of clecos holding the 3 frames to the inside of the bottom and lower skins.  There is a large row of clecos on the forward 7 holes of the bottom skins; those will remain clecoed until the entire tail is mated to the fuselage (sometime in the distant future.)

One of the downsides of the cradle / sawhorse arrangement is that the work surface was uncomfortably high, especially holding the heavy pneumatic rivet gun over the midline seam of the two bottom skins.

I also have a complaint about the holes that were predrilled.  Practically every single one of them needed to be #30 final drilled to accept the LP4-3 rivets.  I deburred those that failed the 'finger test', but was not willing to risk damaging the delicate components by disassembling the entire assembly at this point.  I wonder if anyone else has had this issue.  (It's not a fit issue; the rivets would not pass through a single skin's hole.)

 

Here is the view looking from the tail (inverted) along the belly, towards the front.

 

Technically, this is the view after 10-08 #1, wherein the assembly is rotated to be right side up.  You can see that I have removed the wooden cross pieces that had been over the tops of the uprights of the cradles.  The assembly fits very nicely in the cradles and it's very secure.  I will probably have to put the cross pieces back on and work with the resulting instability (as well as the inconvenience of working up so high) while I install the side skins.  I hope to get back to work on Sunday afternoon, after I sleep off Saturday night.  On the other hand, if Nick is comfortable coming with me, I may go flying in the C-177.