I let the proseal set up a bit before riveting the steps. The finished product is a bit messy looking just because I used acetone to remove the excess proseal (which also takes off some primer), but the entire thing will be cleaned of the existing primer and scuffed before final painting anyway. It never ceases to amaze me how solid these parts become when assembled.
With the steps in, I can start moving to the side panels and flooring. The aft baggage side panel gets permanently mounted, whereas the front one is removable (to allow for access to the flap controls). I waffled back and forth about whether to go ahead and start installing stuff like this or if I should paint the interior first. I decided to install anything that's permanently mounted, then down the road I'll paint the entire interior at once. Because I plan on putting in an interior (carpet and side panels), there won't really be that many areas that need paint anyway. The seat back support and baggage area is about it.
The baggage floor was next. I put it in place and match drilled everything. Most of the floor is permanently mounted (with pop rivets, since there is no access to buck rivets), but the center tunnel gets a separate cover that is screwed down using nutplates. This is where the elevator control tube goes through, as well as room for wire runs.
After rain for the majority of the week, today had a little sunshine, so I jumped at the chance for priming. I didn't want to just prime the baggage floor pieces, so I prepped the seating area flooring as well and primed it all.
The next step is to install the baggage flooring for good. The plans have two holes in the center tunnel for wiring, but with how avionics and electronics have changed over the last 20 years, I'm not sure that those two holes will be enough. Because the floors are installed permanently, I want to future-proof everything and make it as easy as possible to pull additional wires down the road. I spent hours looking for information online about where additional holes could be drilled in the fore and aft bulkheads. In the end, I drilled 3/4" holes in the outboard bays to accept some wiring conduit. I may have to drill holes in the 904 wing spar carry through as well (the big gold bulkhead in front of the seats) to run wires forward to the panel, but I'm not going to do that until I know for sure. Van's does have templates for where those holes can be drilled, but I'd rather not do that unless I know I need them.
