Step 12.8, forward top skin

Time to rivet the last skin.  I've put it off as long as possible and now its time to finally rivet or get off of the pot -- as it were.

The main reason to delay is that access under the forward top skin will be limited to underneath from this point on, or at least it would have been, had I not punched access panels into the two center bays.

These access points will provide the ability to do some work in there from above, but the primary method will unfortunately be me, on my back, under the instrument panel, with rudder pedals in my face.  Not too appealing a thought which is why it has taken me so long to get to this point.  I wanted to make as sure as is possible that all of the avionics were working and I was done working under and behind the panel.

With the last skin riveted on, I started on the cowling attachment.  I'm using quarter turn fasteners rather than the hinge and pin method that Van's likes to use.  The quarter turn fasteners are more expensive and probably heavier, but they make it much easier to to get the cowl on and off.

The first order of business for the cowl attachment is to build a flange that holds the quarter turn capture bracket.  This is the part that the quarter turn screw latches on to. The flange goes around the perimeter of the firewall so there is quite a lot of it to make.  I decided to make a template from plywood and then use that to guide a router through the serpentine shape. 

I found out right away that the plywood is not thick enough for the minimum depth of my edging bit on the router, so I had to make another template from 3/4" pine.  It's a shame I didn't just start there, but that would have required some thinking ahead.

And finally we get to the cut raw material and the quarter turn mounting holes finished.

This was a messy process -- a lot of sawdust and metal shavings.

The brackets are riveted on.  Each of the "fingers" on the flange are bent to match the curvature of the cowling.

The strips are then riveted to the fuselage.

And with that, the flanges are complete.