Firewall - Fwd Fuse RIbs

First order of business today was to rivet the firewall together. The parts have been sitting here for a while now, all primed and ready to install, so why not shift gears a bit and do some riveting?

F-1001 Firewall bulkhead assembly riveted together, minus forward rib subassemblies

Forward view of the firewall-- all flush rivets, looks smooth!

Riveting went pretty well, it's just a bunch of #4 flush rivets and a small handful of nutplates to install... no big deal! That's pretty much it for the firewall for now, the next thing will be to finish assembling the forward ribs and then rivet them to center part of the firewall. Before any of that happens though, we'll need to figure out what we're doing with the access panel(s). So, it was time to look at actually fabricating the R tunnel access panel. Using examples and dimensions I found online, I cut a 7" x 11" hole into the R rib and fabricated a doubler plate out of 0.050" 2024-T3 to go behind the opening. I'll need to buy some 0.040" stock for the access plate itself, but I should be able to proceed without it, as long as I can make a template for it first.

L forward fuse rib with 11" x 7" cutout and custom doubler plate. Doubler still needs to be cut out, final opening will be around 10" x 6"

Getting there! With all of this progress, why not keep ahead in the plans and start assembling the rest of the parts we primed the other day for the forward fuse?

The inboard/outboard forward seat rail supports, attach angles, and bulkhead side channels

Riveting these together was very reminiscent of the first fuselage steps, putting together these triangular-ish shaped brackets and attaching nutplates to them. Looking further in the plans, it turns out we can continue with section 28 for a while longer, until we need to include the firewall assembly. Before we get there, we can put together the Forward Fuselage Bulkhead Assembly, which involves the parts in the photo above along with some others. After digging through the parts shelf and doing some temporary-bolting and clecoing, we had these two L/R subassemblies:

L/R Fwd Fuse Bulkhead Subassemblies

L Fwd Fuse Bulkhead Subassembly, Front

R Fwd Fuse Bulkhead Subassembly, Rear

Good progress today! Time to call it a night though. Lots more to do in this 18-page-long section (this is only page 4), but by the time it's done we should have the bottom of our "canoe" from firewall to baggage compartment built!