26 - Mid Fuse Lower Structure (finished section); 27 - Firewall (tunnel sides; cover angles)

The fuselage is starting to take shape - this week saw the completion of the mid fuselage lower structure, which encompasses all the seat ribs and all the baggage ribs, as well as two bulkheads, much of which was back-riveted to the center bottom skin (thanks to my wife, who bucked the manufactured rivet heads using the back-rivet bucking bar).  Here are the tasks accomplished this week:

- Assembled aft gear brace assembly; riveted seat rib angles to aft gear brace assembly; back-riveted aft gear brace assembly to skin; clecoed center bottom skin to ribs and bulkheads
- dimpled baggage ribs; fluted lower aft flanges of baggage ribs; played with pneumatic metal sheet nibbler
- riveted step attach brackets to weldments to outboard baggage ribs; riveted step attach ribs to outboard baggage ribs; riveted side frame assemblies to baggage ribs; riveted everything to become a larger baggage rib assembly with side frames; riveted nutplates to floor stiffener and power outlet brackets; riveted nutplates to weldments
- back-riveted seat ribs to center bottom skin; riveted baggage ribs to seat ribs and bulkhead; clecoed center bottom skin to baggage ribs
- riveted baggage ribs to bottom center skin; riveted floor stiffener to side frames
- separated deburred firewall angles; deburred and riveted nutplates and cover angles to tunnel sides; riveted support angle to left firewall angle

The new update to Apple's MacOS screws up the order in which photos are uploaded to Blogger ... so these are once again out of order (and it's more of a PITA to reorder them than it's worth).

Riveted seat rib angles to seat ribs:

Reoriented the assembly nose-down in preparation for back-riveting the seat ribs:

Seat ribs, back-riveted (thanks to my wife):

Out of order - riveted stiffeners to bottom center skin PRIOR to back-riveting seat ribs to skin:

Two views - up close of the rivets (too bad these are on the bottom), and my mug for the FAA inspector:

Baggage ribs riveted to the bulkhead and seat ribs (but not yet to the bottom center skin):

Gear brace assembly, clecoed:

Assembly, ready for back-riveting the baggage ribs to skin:

Other side:

Power port and audio-in jack location:

Out of order - assembling the step attach points to the outboard baggage ribs:

Out of order - clecoed seat ribs, just prior to riveting:

Thanks to my wife, all those rivets look perfect (back-riveted all ribs in this section to skin)!

Started assembling the firewall tunnel sides:

Final lower structure assembly, ready for more crap to be added to it:

Out of order - the other step attach brackets:

Out of order - baggage ribs et al., ready to rivet to assembly: