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Firewall alignment

Mark Jackson

Active Member
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I am assembling the forward fuselage section. Cleco'ed the left skin on and the front holes didn't align with the firewall. Figured I would install the right skin. It worked fine and lined up neatly with the holes in the firewall. The left is still off by 0.25".

I thougth that I must have done something stupid with the firewall but upon examination, all the slots in the firewall line up for the various stringers and longerons. This is the bottom of the skin which lines up where it should.

Any ideas? Brute force isn't out of the question but I hate to do anything like that as a last resort.
 

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Hmm...it's been a while since I was fitting this area, but I don't seem to recall any alignment issues like this. I can't really see anything from the photos that seems like a red flag.

Whereabouts in Houston are you? Might be we could find someone to drop by and take a look in person if that seems like it could help. Lots of builders all over the metro area...
 
I ran into one or two "misfits" with the assembly of the fuselage...and every time I solved the issue, it was my bad! The parts all fit like a OJ Simpson glove!

Maybe walk away for a few and relook when refreshed?
 
I am assembling the forward fuselage section. Cleco'ed the left skin on and the front holes didn't align with the firewall. Figured I would install the right skin. It worked fine and lined up neatly with the holes in the firewall. The left is still off by 0.25".

I thougth that I must have done something stupid with the firewall but upon examination, all the slots in the firewall line up for the various stringers and longerons. This is the bottom of the skin which lines up where it should.

Any ideas? Brute force isn't out of the question but I hate to do anything like that as a last resort.

There are some slight compound curves in this area. Cleco each hole at a time from the top down. Go slow and the holes will line up. If you only cleco the top and bottom hole and nothing in between then it's difficult to get the holes to line up like in your picture. I just did this last December so I remember this part. Use as many cleco as you can in this area before you drill into the forward bottom longeron.
 
Resolved

I had installed all the panels for the front baggage compartment to clear off the workbench. When I installed them, I apparently screwed them in way too tight. After removing F-870, the forward baggage floor, everything pretty much lined up and good to go.
 
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