Saturday, October 7, 2023

Baggage Bulkhead

The upper portion of the baggage bulkhead has to be trimmed to fit within the curve of the fuselage.  I laid out the curve and cut it using a cutoff wheel on the die grinder.  Then I put the lower and upper pieces back in the fuselage and drilled the remaining screw holes in the fuselage bulkhead.


Once I had the screw holes located, I removed the upper skin to make drilling and riveting the nutplates easier.  It's pretty amazing how floppy the fuselage bulkhead gets without the skin in place.


The seatbelt cables have to go through the baggage bulkhead where the upper and lower parts meet.  I cut out the clearance holes, then made the plastic blocks that get pop riveted on to protect the cables from rubbing against the metal of the bulkhead.



The two blocks come together on the back side of the bulkhead and provide just a small opening for the seatbelt anchors to pass through.  I don't have enough parts to justify another priming session yet, but I went ahead and installed the blocks anyway just so I could keep things moving.