1.8 Hours -

The primer on the F-706 sides was dry, so it was finally time to rivet them to the base and set the F-706 bulkhead aside.  All of the rivets could be squeezed, but the base and sides are made from such thin aluminum that they were a bit of a challenge to rivet together.  The challenges were mainly from the bulkhead being so light and flexible that it was hard to keep it in position.  Oh well, the F-706 bulkhead has joined the many other partial assemblies in temporary storage.  Hopefully, I’ll get to start putting the partial assemblies together at some point soon because I’m running out of storage room in the garage!

The F-706 bulkhead material is so thin that it is actually a little difficult to rivet. At least it can be set aside for a while now.

With the F-706 done, I wanted to wrap up the F-709 and F-710 bulkheads as well.  Between the two bulkheads, there are only three parts.  For tonight, I prepped and primed these parts.  Tomorrow, I’ll rivet the F-710 angle to the bulkhead, and these parts will be finished (toss in my usual, “for now”).

There isn't much to the F-709 and F-710 bulkheads. Here, the parts are being primed.

On to the F-711 bulkhead.  Van’s calls this a “double bulkhead.”  Basically, it is two bulkheads riveted back to back.  Since I actually knew where these parts were in the crate, it didn’t take me long to find everything I needed to get started.  I clecoed the F-711A&B bulkheads together and then grabbed a length of AB4-187 x 1-1/4 bar stock and got to work fabricating the F-711C bars.  The bars were simple to make…cut to length, draw a center line, drill three holes in each bar at the specified locations, and cut the outside top edge to a slight angle…easy.

The F-711 bars are fairly easy to make from the provided stock material. Just cut to length, drill a few holes, and add a taper.

Once made, the F-711C bars are clecoed and clamped to the F-711A&B bulkheads in order to drill the remaining holes.  The centerline on the bars is visible through the holes in the bulkhead, and the bulkhead holes are used as the drill guides for match-drilling the bars.  After the bars were fully drilled, I marked a section of each bulkhead half that needs to be trimmed away to make room for the elevator pushrod.  However, I’ll leave the actual trimming for another day.

The F-711C bars are clamped to the F-711A&B bulkheads for drilling.

The blue centerline on the F-711C bars is visible through the holes in the F-711A&B bulkheads. The bulkhead holes are then used as guides for drilling.

The F-711C bars are drilled and the F-711A&B bulkheads are marked for trimming.