Picking Up a Few Missed Details – 1.5 hrs

Tuesday May 17, 2011

While trolling a few of the web sites that other RV7/RV7A builders have posted I noticed that I missed a few small details on the bulkhead drawings. That can happen when the instructions don’t mention those details and there is a lot of small notes on the drawings. It pays to study the drawings carefully and compare them to the instructions. But who does that 100%? That’s why I browse other web sites as well as to pick up tips.

There is a snap bushing hole called out on a small detail view on drawing 21 through the F-706B bulkhead for the manual trim cable. The drawing also says you can put another snap bushing in on the opposite side of the centerline for electrical wiring. I don’t know if I will need that hole now but I decided to go ahead and put it in now because I might need it and it won’t hurt to have it there even if I don’t use it. The tricky part is the hole goes through the F-706B and two other parts mounted directly behind it. I tried to drill them all simultaneously but the unibit wants to drift to the side because the flange behind the bulkhead only partially overlaps the hole. So I ended up finishing the holes separately. Here is the F-706B with the F-730 behind it. The ribs are not shown.

Missed these two snap bushing holes last time

After drilling and cleaning up the partial holes with a rotary tool and a file, I deburred the edges again for priming. I had also missed a callout for flush head rivets on the F-706B so I machine countersank the angle and dimpled the other parts as required. Here are all the modified parts.

Parts modified

Before packing it in for the night I started checking the fit of the main longerons to the bulkheads. There are intricate notches cut in the bulkheads but they are too small as delivered by Vans. I got heads up on this from Brad Oliver’s web site. So I started filing the slots out carefully so the longerons will slip in without binding.

Improving longeron fit through the bulkheads