Chapter 6 – Fuselage Assembly
Home -> Chapter Summary <- Chapter 5 Chapter 7 ->
I enjoyed this part – actually assembling a structure. I bought some tie-down straps from Harbor Freight for $2.50 each, and they worked great holding the pieces in place.
|
Sides still in cradle and F22, fireall in position. This wasnÕt too hard, but popping the sides from their cradles left big gouges in the foam (described earlier). |
Sides held together while flox cures. Also a good shot of my cruddy garage floor – it has some type of disease that causes it to bubble up, peel and ablate into pieces. Need a new garage! |
|
|
Fuel selector valve bracket |
|
And plywood cutouts |
Finished FS valve bracket – note how the little
rivet dudes hold the machine screw anchors in place. I just tapped the rivets flat with a
thick nail set. |
|
|
Carving foam for plywood insert. Just hacking it out with hacksaw blade and chisel. |
LG Bulkheads floxed in place. I measured these against M-drawings many times, and yet somehow the forward bulkhead is too
short at top (not shown). DoesnÕt
quite reach to the spar cutout |
|
|
Bottom
bondo-d to 1x2s. Later
on, somehow there is a 1/8Ó difference in height at F-22, and so thereÕs a
slight twist to the fuselage bottom.
I notice it, not sure how
much of a problem it will be, but this is where it was introduced |
Another angle |
|
|
45* cut-out of speed brake. Saber saw worked well. |
Micro-gluing spacers in place. I used my harbor freight bandsaw to cut the spacers in
segments – this went much smoother, with much better results than the
manual method used for the side spacers. |
|
Home -> Chapter Summary <- Chapter 5 Chapter 7 ->