Checklist before Fuse Disassembly ?

[704CH]

Hey guys, I am at the point where everything per instructions is pretty much done on the fuse and I am about ready to tear it apart for the prep process before final assembly. Looking forward in the plans I am wondering if there are a few things that might be better to do now before waiting until riveted and the canoe is flipped. Any thoughts? Most of these are specific to the tail dragger.. Anything else I should think of?

1) Drill Fit and Rivet the F-7280 angle to the gear attach web (outside support of the cover plate in front of the main spar - tail dragger only.) This seems really difficult to drill and rivet once the gear attach web is riveted.
2) Drill out F7114 Fuse gusset (tail dragger only), to ensure for proper deburing on all those layers of metal involved in this junction.
3) Drill F-695 Fuse Gusset ? The firewall, main longeron gusset to ensure for proper deburing.

 

[BSwayze]

Chad,

Have you thought about the interior paint for the cabin? I painted mine along the way, prepping, priming and painting the parts before riveting everything together. Others have strong opinions doing it the other way, but I'm sure glad I did mine this way. No regrets. It's something to think about.

 

[instructor_bill]

read a bit further and...

I don't think you'll want to drill the firewall to longeron gussets yet

You will notice that those are drilled and riveted after everything else in the canoe is riveted, you've flipped the assembly and the center section and aft deck is level to ensure there is no twist... then the f-714 is drilled

then the twist free fuse assebly gets the 695's drilled

If done in the reverse order, you may have twist in the fuselage that you can't get rid of unless you remove those 695's and back drill a blank 695 through your cleanly deburred holes.

But, remember-- I'm at the same stage as you are and I've never done this before, but that's what the plans say and I'll stick to them when I don't understand. When really in doubt, I'll call and talk to Support.

The F-782d is installed with lp4-3 blind rivets. I don't see a compelling reason to change this to solid rivets for strength as it is just to hold the floating end of the cover at the cabin side, I'm going to wait. There's absolutely nothing in the construction manual about them... only on the plans.

WD-721's for the 7a are put in a few pages later just before wing/fuse assembly, and they're installed the same way as the f-7114. It appears as if you'll wait there too. Deburring would be nice, but in this case, I think its best to drill the entire assembly, chip chase if you can, deburr the entrance and exit, and call it good. There is not much you can do here. Am I on the wrong track here? In the same area, same drawing as the 7114's you'll also notice some extra bolts that would normally attach the -A gear weldment that will need to be added, even though a big ole rivet would have been fine there in each of those holes. May as well drill those now and install most of those.

You may have a better feel for what VanGrunsven intends for us to do in the construction manual and in the plans, but everytime I think I'll do something just a little differently, I end up regretting it. I'm quite sure there's a reason in my case.

 

[704CH]

Thanks for the feedback guys. Hopefully others will chime in as well if there is anything else they would consider.

Bruce, I was thinking about topcoat as I go through this process like you did, but am frustrated with the time of year that I find my self here. I can only heat up my garage so much and really am trying to get by with all my priming/painting outside with no booth. Maybe I will take the extra time to get a booth together and just take care of it now.. Also, I am thinking about the SW Genesis. Local availability and same durability/solvent resistence etc as jetflex, but non aviation so cheaper. Its used for industrial automotive applications. Wish me luck.

BTW, I love your site, it is one of my top and has been very helpful.

 

[BSwayze]

Thanks, Chad. I appreciate that. For what it's worth, to follow up on your concerns, I don't have a paint booth here. Never did have one. One big advantage of the water-based JetFlex is that you can spray it in your garage and not worry about fumes. That's what I did with some of mine. That would tilt the scale a bit more toward JetFlex IMHO. It may take a bit longer to dry this time of year, but it turns out just as good. I'm not familiar with the Genesis product. I'm interested in knowing what you end up doing.