Section: 37
Hours: 5

I reached a point where I needed to have the roll bar assembly riveted in before I could continue with the canopy frame, so today I assembled the roll bar.

First I clecoed the roll bar in place, hit it with a rubber mallet to make sure it was seated on the bases and then match drilled the required holes into the bases. Then I removed the assembly and deburred and cleaned up all the drill chips. Then I assembled it again and did the riveting.

The roll bar is pull riveted to the bases because there is no access to the inside. I used my pneumatic pull riveter for these. By the time I finished riveting the bases I had used all the rivets provided in the kit. They cut the count close- no extra opps rivets in this kit.

Here I've attached the bushing and the doublers with pull rivets.

The roll bar brace gets attached with some hefty pull rivets on the top.

The back of the roll bar brace is riveted to the fuselage using solid rivets. A couple of these were a pain to reach behind the bulkhead...

Flush rivets are used to attach the brace to the top skin.

I finished up today by riveting in the skin diagonal longerons.

Section: 37
Hours: 5

The weather was good today and the paint had cured enough on the roll bar parts so I decided to work on fixing the streaks and drips from painting earlier in the week. I sanded down the roll bar and support pieces with 320 grit sand paper, used dry. Then I scrubbed with maroon scotch brite pads and wiped everything down with lint free rags lightly soaked with 90 proof rubbing alcohol. I catalyzed 3 oz. of EkoCrylic and shot on another 2 fog coats and a final wet coat. I didn't get any runs today and the paint covered without streaks.

Section: 37
Hours: 4

Today I did some more top coat painting on the roll over structure. I spent a couple hours prepping and cleaning and then suited up in my paint overalls, catalyzed 4 oz. of EkoCrylic Dawn Patrol Gray and began applying the fog coats to the parts. Halfway through the 2nd fog coat it started raining which caused a bunch of runs in the water based EkoCrylic. What a disaster. I moved everything into the garage and dabbed down the runs with rags. I decided to try to salvage the paint and moved everything back to the paint booth and applied a heavy wet coat to finish up. Unfortunately, the paint streaked and ran. I guess I will have to do it over after it cures. Ugh!!!!

Section: 37
Hours: 5

Today was riveting day. I clecoed the strapping bands to the forward frame assembly and set the solid rivets using the squeezer. Flush rivets on the top and regular rivets on the bottom flange.

I made the counter sinks slightly deep to account for the curvature of the frames and also to ensure rivet heads would not impinge on the plexi glass.

Then I riveted the bushing doublers to the aft frame assembly.

Then more clecoing to attach the two frames. Care was taken to ensure the assembled frames were flat with no twist.

And then I used the pneumatic rivet puller to shoot the pull rivets joining the frames together. (Glad I bought the pneumatic puller). The bags of pull rivets are getting pretty empty - I must be getting close to the end of riveting.

Section: 37
Hours: 4

Today I clecoed and drilled. The roll bar frame is held together with an inner and outer strap bar that. All the holes are pre punched #40 and have to be carefully drilled out to #30. I started by rolling the strapping bars on the edge of the bench to get them to conform to the curves of the frames. The manual advises to take care to not kink the bend- the straps are susceptible to kinking at the hole locations. I slightly under bent the straps to avoid kinking.

Next I inserted the straps and clecoed all the holes, keeping the straps tight to the inside lip of the frames. I used almost all of my #40 clecos. Then I removed one cleco at a time, drilled the hole out to #30 and replaced with a #30 cleco. This was a very labor intensive operation - there are 114 holes. Then I deburred all the holes and counter sank all the holes on the top surface for flush rivets.

Section: 37
Hours: 3

Yesterday we went to San Francisco for fleet week with Woody. While we were enjoying lunch at a sidewalk cafe, the F-22 Raptor flew over making a huge racket and terrified Woody. He sat out the rest of the air show back in the apartment with his paws over his ears. The Blue Angles buzzed the city with their performance. They fly too fast- they make a pass over show center and then disappear for minutes at a time before they can turn around and make another pass.

I riveted the roll bar sections together.

Section: 37
Hours: 4

I primed the roll over structure parts.

Section: 37
Hours: 4

I did some more work countersinking holes and then washed/degreased the roll over parts in preparation for priming.

Section: 37
Hours: 5

I started work on the roll bar structure. This consists of 4 heavy aluminum formed parts riveted together with straps. Today was spent filing edges, counter sinking and deburring holes and trial fitting to the fuselage.