Fuselage (Top and Cabin)

	5 May 2005	After flipping the fuselage over, it was time to contemplate the aft deck. First step was leveling the fuselage. Once I leveled the front, the tail was pretty much right there. I did check with both a bubble and a digital level. Even with 0.0 on a digital, you can still move a little without changing the indication.
		Got the aft deck clamped and drilled. As I had all this secured, it dawned on me that I forgot the fabricate the spacers under the deck. Darn!
	13 May 2005	Just another priming shot....but did get these ready for riveting. The funky part that looks like a cleaver is the mount for the TruTrak pitch servo.
	14 May 2005	Before final riveting of the aft deck, I needed to replace the bolts for the tailwheel mount. These were just temp so I removed, replaced with new bolts, and torqued.
		All done. Cool! More visual progress. Also riveted the bulkhead to the aft deck at this time. There's just no room for adjustment so why not. Seemed to work for Dan C.
	16 May 2005	I was able to squeeze most of the rivets at the 705 bulkhead except for the ones with the arrows at left. I thought these were really going to be tough but they really ended up as a non-event.
		Went ahead and riveted in the gussets here in four places.
		Also riveted in the canopy sills. These went in fairly easy but there were about three or four rivets on each side you need to hit with the gun instead of the longeron yoke.
		The arrows point to two of the rivets that you can't access with the longeron yoke. I had a bucking bar that was about .75x.25x5" and was able to get up to these with no problems.
	17 May 2005	The rivets marked at left are obstructed by the angle bracket under the 705. I might have to resort to blind rivets here as there just doesn't seem to be any way of bucking these correctly.
		I had drilled the F721 decks and the longerons thinking that I'd rivet these in. After looking at the instructions a bit, I think I'll hold off for now.
		The forward longeron to firewall gussets are done. Most of the rivets along the longeron can be had with the squeezer, but you're still going to have to shoot them unless you have a no-hole r 4" longeron yoke.
	24 May 2005	Started fitting the top skins per Van's instructions. Not a real big deal and went fairly smooth.
	25 May 2005	The biggest trick is drilling the 907B clips. Once you figure out the instructions, lift the side of the skin up and use a 12" #30 drill between the skin and the stringer. Works good.
	26 May 2005	Took about an hour and finished drilling the top aft skins. Next on the list is the baggage floors and the big 706 bulkhead.
	28 May 2005	Started out by riveting the vertical sitffner to the F706 bulkhead. Remember to leave the top rivets open for now. Also, used the CS-4 blind rivets as called out optional in the plans. I just didn't feel like wrestling with the solid rivets in this hard to buck spot. The solids on the right were easy.
		Next step was the baggage sides and floor. Now you might be asking about the black clecos. Yup, I'm putting the aft side skins in with #8 screws just like the floors. I have all removable floors and the forward baggage side is also screwed in, so why not the aft.
		Sides were completed then on to the aft bulkhead. Not a problem. Just cleco along the bottom edge and drill per the pilot holes.
		The top half is another matter. Vans has you mark a point off the center line, then draw an 8.5 inch radius for the top corners. The problem with this is that it doesn't reflect the curvature of the bulkhead. My solution was to trim away the upper corners until it fit roughly in place. Then take a market and mark a bunch of points 1" from the 706 outboard flange. Take the upper bulkhead out, then trim as necessary.
		It's not drilled yet, but it seems to fit well. All I need to do is drill for the #8 screws and nut-plates. Good visual progress.
	1 June 2005	So, I got the #8 screw holes done, now time for the dreaded plate-nut drilling. I pulled out the well-used plat-nut jig used for the flooring and proceeded to drill the rivet holes for the 40 or so plate-nuts around the aft baggage bulkhead. The arrows represent where I needed to add plate-nuts since the plans call for riveting the aft floor to the bulkhead here. If you're installing a removable floor, this is a diff from the plans. Also, just inboard from the outter most lower plate-nuts (basically in the lower corners) there is a sole rivet that can be countersunk and riveted at this point.
		After about two months, my new Andair fuel selector showed up. This is the new unit designed for the RV-7 with the 45-deg fittings mount instead of the 90 degree mounts. Also received the AFP high-pressure fuel pump so I'm good to go on the install of these units.
		Whoop-dee-do....yup, more nut-plates. It was a scortcher in the garage this evening and bending over for all this was a little tiring. At lease they are pretty much done. Some time I'm going to count all the nutplates. Then again, maybe I don't want to know.
	2 June 2005	I was really ready to move on to the seats but hold it. Stop. Forgot to install the delrin blocks for the harness cables. Spent an hour getting these fitted. Van's has you cut out a bunch of cheesy little square washers for backing plates when these are blind riveted. I have a bunch of 1/8 inch washers and they will look a whole bunch better than those square aluminum things.
		Got all this fitted and temp installed. I'm not riveting this all in until things get painted. It gets screwed in anyway.
	3 June 2005	Cut all the hinges for the seat assemblies. The plan drawings are just a jumbled mess of numbers and it takes some time to figure out what's going on here.
	4 June 2005	Hopefully, this isn't going to be all buggered up. Per a couple other web sites, it's recommended that you move the seats inboard about 1/4" as the outboard edge of the seat tops ends up hitting the roll-over structure. So....I moved the hinges inboard 1/4". Sure hope this works.
	8 June 2005	Started out making the 3/4 x 3/4 angles for the seat side rails. Fairly straight forward.
		This is the left seat. The trick is putting the seats together. Once you get over the drawings, it's OK. I had to help the seat back extend a bit. Overall, they were about .125 short so the cure is to apply some pressure at the corrugations to get the seatback to extend a little.
	12 June 2005	Received this nifty tool from Sears Aircraft Supply. I figured the $45 for this 180-degree tube bender is going to save a infinite amount of headache in bending the tubes for the AFP fuel pump. My current bender just won't do the 180 degrees and it's going to be necessary. Also a good excuse for a cool tool.
		This shows how I lengthened the seat back on the right side. As soon as you get it to the right length, drill the lower holes and you're good to go.
	19 June 2005	I went to do the weekly update here and realized I didn't take many pictures. The photo at left is about it. I did manage to make some progress though. The seats were finished off as well as the flap drive assembly to include the flap motor. All was taken apart, de-burred, dimpled as necessary, and primed.
	21 June 2005	All the seat-back components are pretty much complete.
	22 June 2005	Had to re-order some of the z-channel for the tunnel cover as I had made a cut wrong. Oh well, parts are pretty cheap.
	25 June 2005	Hinges for the seat floors get the works. These are put in with solid rivets since all my floors are removable.
	28 June 2005	Here's the seats, for the most part all done.
		...and the front view.
	29 June 2005	Ordered my stick grips. Very nice units.
	30 June 2005	Started all the angle fittings for the roll-over bar. This is about the last big job before finish kit arrives.
	July - Nov 05	As usual, when things are moving along, direction changes. I've accepted a job in the Seattle area so we're starting the relocation process. Man, I hate moving, but it's going to be worth while. As of end of August, the RV has been relocated to the Seattle area by Tony Partain's trucking company. I figured if they were moving quick-builds from Van's, they probably had room to move an in-progress kit up north. For less than the cost of a U-Haul, they showed up and loaded in about an hour, then delivered directly to my temp. location in a couple days. Very good deal if you need to move a kit. Hopefully, I'm back at the building sometime in October. We have a new house outside Redmond and I just need to get settled and build-out the shop.
	25 Nov 2005	Finally, an update! I've been getting the workshop ready to re-start RV work so it's taken some time but I'm getting close. Got a call from FedEx and they said they have a 300# box to delivery. The finish kit was ready to ship but the relocation to Washington caused a slight delay. I only sent Van's the final payment on the Finish Kit a week or two ago and the box is already here!
	26 Nov 2005	My new workshop is pretty much ready for the fuselage so I thought I'd fit the wings while everything was in one place at the airport. Overall, it was a fairly simple process following Van's plans. Dave Parons showed up and help with the wing installation, sweep and incidence settings. 1) First step was to go through the plans and get a checklist together. Click here for a copy of what I used (Word doc.). 2) Got together a set of tools to take to the airport.      -  ordered four 7/16 and 4 1/4 bolts from Aircraft Spruce to use in the fitting      -  four clamps to hold plumb-bob strings      - a couple clamps to hold the aft spar in place      - a couple levels, 3" block for incidence setting (make sure the levels are long enough from the forward spar to the aft      - lubrication for the spar and bolts      - appropriate drill bits to open up the aft spar hole to 5/16.      - Two saw horses for resting the wing at the tips, and one to assist with the inner. I used the measurements from Dan's site and they worked great. 3) We Leveled the fuselage per plans, then worked the wings into place. This was really a no-brainer. The only trick is to make sure you insert the drift pins (bolts) from the rear because it's a lot easier tapping them out from the front. 4) Ensure both wings have the same distance from the wing tip to the tail. We used the most aft pre-punched hole for the wing tips for the wing tip reference point. The tail wheel fitting was used for the tail point. When both wings read the same, we checked sweep. 5) Turned out, they had about 1/8" forward sweep. I had originally cut the aft spar attach per plans, but found that the forward tap for the ready spar attach point on the fuselage, bottomed-out against the rib flange. I couldn't get a good photo of this. By the time we had the wings as far aft as possible, without trimming the fuselage spar attach tab, we had 1/16" forward sweep. With 1/16" way out on the tip, this is basically within the error of the chalk line. 6) Dave and I kept trying to line up a chalk line over the two center plumb-bobs. Since these are only about 6' apart, the potential for error at the tips is increased. To get this right, we set a datum about 2" forward of the outter plumb-bobs as the bobs get in the way for snapping a line. Since the distance from the tips to the tail is the same for both sides, we know we have the same sweep for both wings. Snap a line using the outter bobs, then check the inner bobs. They were both 2 1/16" aft of the chalk line, indicating a 1/16" forward sweep. OK. Good to go. 7) Now set the incidence. Use the 3" spacer and the level to check the incidence on both wings. From the inboard end all the way to the tip, incidence was right on 0.0 degrees. No twist in either wing, which was a big relief. 8) Last step was to drill the aft spar attach points. I don't get a lot of pictures of myself , but here I am drilling the aft spar attach points. Contrary to popular belief we do get some sun here in Seattle. OK, this was the 15 minutes for the day (well, not quite that bad). 9) I'm waiting for final assembly to fit ailerons and flaps but we did check holes for electrical and fuel. So far it looks good. 10) To wrap up the day, we took the wings back off so we can bring the fuselage home for the canopy work.
	12 Dec 2005	Over the weekend, Dave Parsons and I moved the fuselage out of storage at Auburn and up to the house so I can get back to work on this. Sure is good to have it back local again. The new shop is a cozy 19' x  13' so the fuselage fits length-wise. The big potential problem is the garage door in the middle of the 19' wall. The fuselage tail needs to go all the way into the back corner and then the front is swung into the shop. I have a little extra room but don't know if it would go back out with the engine installed. Going to have to check this out!