Section 33 Complete!

Well... sort of complete, anyway. Today I worked on the second half of Section 33, which dealt with installing a cover panel on the R side of the baggage compartment (opposite from the door) and drilling/deburring/dimpling holes for the baggage bulkhead corrugation panel. I say "sort of" complete because there are a couple parts that I will be leaving uninstalled for now, namely the R side cover panel because I want to make another conduit run behind it to put wires that I want to keep separate from the other two "main" looms. I had ordered some 3/4" conduit from cableorganizer but for whatever reason it's been delayed an extra couple weeks.

Guess it's a good time to vent about cableorganizer.com. It's been a bit frustrating dealing with them, so far they are my least favorite vendor I've dealt with on this build. They charged/re-charged/refunded my credit card a number of times for some reason which triggered a fraud alert that I had to deal with. When I originally placed my order, everything was said to be in stock, but suddenly one item (zip ties) mysteriously changed to a ship date of 8/31. No big deal. The 3/4" conduit in question though was marked as shipped with the rest of the order on 8/19 (which by the way was 6 days/4 business after the order was placed), however it wasn't in any of the boxes that arrived. When I called to inquire, I was told it wouldn't ship until 8/31, along with the zip ties. This was *not* what was clearly printed on the invoice and all order tracking notifications I received. Grr. Maybe I'm just used to places like amazon and aircraft spruce that ship within a day or so, and seem to be much more "on top of it". Or maybe I'm just bitter about spending over $250 on plastic tubing and zip ties... :-/

Anyway...... first-world problems I guess. The rest of Section 33 went pretty well, and I now have a number of nutplates installed around the perimeter of the F-1006 bulkhead and down the F-1028 channel.

Drilling the #19 holes around the F-1006 bulkhead

Panels removed and nutplates installed!

In the pic above, you may notice that the F-1031 Upper baggage door seal channel is not yet installed. I'm also leaving this part out for now until I figure out exactly what I'm doing for the baggage door latch. I'm not crazy about the idea of the standard key-only latch mechanism; I'd rather have the ability to lock-unlock it and then have some kind of paddle handle or slide latch to open and close the door. I'm searching far and wide for the "perfect" latch and it's been kind of hard to find so far. I'll keep searching, and I don't think that will really keep anything else from continuing in the meantime.

I also finally installed nutplates along the forward tunnel along the top edge. Technically this was supposed to be done a while ago (I think in the firewall section?!) but I kept procrastinating, knowing that it could be done at basically any time since there is easy access to that area. No worries, that's done now too.

So, all that's really left to do with Section 33 is final-installing the F-1080 baggage cover once I finally get my conduit, and final-installing the F-1031 baggage door channel once I figure out what my baggage door latch is going to be. Oh, and installing the rear seat belt wear blocks, but again I want to hold off on that until I actually have my restraint system purchased and in-hand. Three quick and simple tasks... good enough for me to call 33 done!

Next up, I'm going to skip 34 (baggage door) for the same reason as above until I find the right latch, and going to start on 35, Access Covers and Floor Panels. Should be a fun section, hopefully!