Fuselage work continues. Three hundred and five hours have gone into the project. The lower fuselage from the firewall back to the end of the baggage/fuel tank floor area has been completed.

No major mistakes have been made to date but availing myself of the knowledgeable builder assist services at Vans has made my progress steady and uneventful.

I also am following Marty's and Jerry's builder blogs (very detailed and informative), intending to use their experiences to supplant my lack of knowledge. Of course, one of the times that I skipped reading their blogs prior to a major assembly point, I realized I should have.

I had already attached the lower front fuselage to the middle section and then I read Marty's blog. He stated that it would be much better to attach the F1207 E&L vertical supports to the front of the middle section before attaching the front section to it.

Oops!

The problem is that there is minimal room to get a rivet puller in the tight area after the front section is attached. There are four rivets for each vertical support. The rivets can be inserted but due to the curvature of the belly skin, there is no room for a straight pull.

I had already made an angle plate to allow pulling rivets when they are too close to a bulkhead to permit a straight pull. I made a much smaller version and used a small, 40-year old Montgomery Ward rivet puller to successfully pull all eight rivets flush and square. Hooray!

The next step is bending the aluminum angle longerons to fit the curvature of the mid-fuselage.