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32-04 to 06 More Baggage

Christmas has a lot going for it, but it’s a major build distraction!

Anyway, now it’s over more progress …

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Match drilling the seat back hinges should have been a simple little job.

Well it was, but on my first hinge I found the hand drill elongated the floor holes a bit (my drill press couldn’t reach all the holes).

So I tried centre-punching …

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… and this solved the issue.

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Having deburred all the parts that need to be assembled in this section, I trial fitted the baggage floors.

Another perfect fit by Vans!

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Four nut plate holes have to be final drilled #19 along the forward inboard edges of the floors.

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Several edges on the baggage side covers need to be “broken”. The tabs on the aft side covers were too small for the Cleaveland Edge Tool, so I resorted to the Offset Hand Seamer.

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Here are the parts sprayed with my 2K Cockpit Grey ready for assembly.

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Nice little job riveting on the nut plates to the Flap Motor Channel.

I’m being careful not to ruin the paint job, hence the cardboard, since I’m painting the cockpit parts as they are assembled.

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Vans suggest you clean under the baggage floor, removing all debris etc. Seemed like a top idea, so rather than hoover I decided to use the rotisserie to flip the fuselage upside down …

… and then use the airline to blow everything onto the workshop floor.

I’m planning to rivet the floors in place tomorrow.

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4 comments on 32-04 to 06 More Baggage
  1. Timothy Ward

    Hi,
    I just discovered this build log, amazing progress so far! I don’t know too much about RV kits (building one is a pipe dream in the far future), so I was wondering where you’re at overall; what kind of timescale do you estimate until completion?

    Tim

    1. Steve

      Hi Tim

      I’m not sure actually, but I suspect there is about 3500hrs of work. I’ve done about 1850 so far … so 3500hr would be about Autumn 2021. It’s lots of work, but I can thoroughly recommend the kit. It all fits together amazingly well.

  2. Michael Burbidge

    I’m building a 14. My baggage floors are ready to install (rivet). Did you add any additional holes for wires under the baggage floor. It doesn’t appear that you bothered or were worried about pulling wires after the floors are installed. In fact, it looks like you left existing wires from the rear fuselage in the rear fuselage, including the rudder cables. Did you have any difficulties pulling those after the floors were installed?

    1. Steve

      Hi Michael

      As you can see from the pictures in post 32-05 to 08 all the necessary wires are routed up through the centre channel, between the left/right baggage floors. I did not need to add any other holes for wires under these floors.

      If you fit a typical TXPDR antenna in the location right of the centre channel it’s possible after fitting the floor as I did, but it’s worth confirming your plan before fitting the right baggage floor due to the restricted access via a lightening hole.

      Best wishes

      Steve

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