The fuselage grew today! The center section slides over the tailcone bottom skin and the baggage ribs rest up against the 706 bulkhead. It looks a little precarious setting on saw horses, but this is the tried and true method. It was fairly easy to cleco the bottom skins together once I got the front portion of the center section at the right height.
That is where the "easy" part stopped. Next up were the side skins. I wasn't looking forward to this part just based on all of the horror stories I've read about how difficult it is to get the rear portion lined up. Turns out it's all true. I was able to get the skin to front and seat bulkheads clecoed in relatively easily, but that's where it stopped. The rear row of holes that connects to the tailcone side skins was so far off that it made me wonder if there would ever be hope of matching things up. I went ahead and put both skins on just to have them off the workbench, but after a couple of hours of shimming and moving things all over the place I finally gave up for the day. That rear row of holes is still 3/4" off. That seems like an impossible amount to overcome, but people say it's indeed possible once you get everything moved to just the right position. That's for another day.
