With the help of the bending dies, I finished the main curves in both longerons. The dies definitely made the process much easier simply because of the fact that the out-of-plane bends weren't as bad. They still occurred, but to a far less extent and were much easier to fix. Van's provides a full scale drawing of the bend, but when I compared it with the actual part that the bend is to fit, the drawings were off enough to cause problems. I instead made the curve fit the aft canopy deck. That is, after all, the part that will eventually get riveted to the longeron.
Next up the aft canopy deck had to be match drilled to each longeron. To get the edge alignment for the canopy deck correct, I taped a couple of aluminum sheets the same thickness as the fuselage skins to the outside edge of the longeron. The canopy deck sits on top of the longeron and on top of the skin (so overhanging the outside edge of the longeron itself, hence the need for a spacer to imitate the skin).
Then it was just a matter of drilling and clecoing the canopy deck to the longeron.
The longerons still require more bending at this stage. At the front portion where the front of the aft canopy deck ends, the longerons have to dive down to match the angle of the side skins. The plans provide both the measurement for the distance the end has to drop as well as the actual angle (5 degrees). I put the longeron in the vice right where the bend starts and did the ol' bend and whack it with a rubber mallet approach. It actually bent quite easily and didn't bend out of plane too terribly much. Lastly, from this mark forward, the longeron needs a twist. I still haven't quite pictured in my mind how a twisted longeron gets attached to the skin, but I'm sure that'll become clear once it all goes together. The twist was a bit nerve wracking. There needs to be a 17 degree twist from horizontal. I put a crescent wrench on the end and gave it a turn. No twist. I tried again. No twist. Turns out you REALLY have to twist the longeron to get it to maintain a permanent twist. I was sure somehow it was going to snap in half, but eventually I got the twist in. I used a simply digital level app on my phone to check the down angle as well as the twist, then made a cardboard template of the side fuselage skin and held that up against the bend to verify it was good. At least from what I can tell, it looks like it's right. I won't know if it's accurate enough until it's time to assemble.
There are two J stringers for the top of the tailcone that don't get put in place for quite a while (the top skin is left off as long as possible to make access to the tail easier). I decided to go ahead and cut them to length and shape the ends just to be done with them though.
All of the skins and bulkheads are in place now, so I inserted the J stringers (all but the top ones). Next up will be leveling the whole tailcone as much as possible and match drilling the stringers to the skins, followed by final size drilling all of the other skin/bulkhead holes.
