Tailcone J-Stiffeners, to bend or cut

Hi all, I pre-assembled my bottom half of the tailcone to check a few things before I prime it (mainly how much brake I need to do on the skins) and found the J-stiffeners on both F-1281 contact all three frames on both sides and I'm not sure of the best way to correct it.

The plans say to either cut the holes out or to bend the stiffeners but when I tried gently bending the channel but it didn't seem to be having the effect I wanted. It appeared that it would put a wavy effect along the stiffener and I didn't want to risk damaging the skin.

I was going to look at cutting out the clearance holes but then noticed the skins may be under-bent as the next skin appears to stick out a bit (appears as if it needs more of a bend from the rivet holes to the stiffener). Given the bend would need to be the complete length of the skin I'm not sure how to do it evenly.

I was just wondering what others had done at this point?

Picture showing one of the contact points.

Try to cleco the skin to the frames in every hole.
Also cleco every second hole where skins come together.

Cheers

I would normally do every other one but during the trial assembly as I ran out of cleco's. I had 208 in but I wouldn't need that many during normal assembly as I would be riveting before the next skin goes on (rather than cleco'ing them all on as I did here). I do have a load still in the HS at the moment that will be available for when I do the final assembly.

I did try more around one of the frames and it was still interfering so I will still need to do some bending or cutting to get the clearance needed.

I had the same "problem". Used a file to increase the hole, didn't bent the stiffener or the skin. Riveting takes care of the skin. After riveting there was more clearance than expected. Clecos are not strong enough to show you the final fit.

In picture 1 the stiffener is touching the channels (even after increasing the holes). Picture 2 shows the end result. You can always bend the stiffener a bit with your thumbs (at the contact point) if there is still contact after riveting the skins.

Thanks for the advice. I will go with the option of opening out the holes (it is definitely the easier of the two options).

The white looks so much nicer than the green industrial look my primer has, nice pictures.