After running all the conduit and cables under the baggage area and rear seats, it was time to complete riveting of the rear seat floors. Riveting these was easy enough as they use mostly pull rivets, but even the rivets along the ribs and bulkheads were straightforward to set with the pneumatic squeezer.
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| Left rear seat floor riveted in |
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| Right rear seat floor complete |
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| Nutplates were riveted in along the bulkheads and ribs where required |
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| I temporarily removed the bushings through which the rudder cables will run as I will need to flex the bushings over the rudder cables before inserting them through the bulkhead holes |
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| Center channel nutplates will be used to attached covers once control rods are in place |
I then worked on the rear seat side panels. After temporarily screwing them in place, I match drilled #19 holes from each side panel into the longerons. I then removed the side panels and used a #8 nutplate jig to drill nutplate attach holes around each longeron screw hole.
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| Side panel temporarily screwed in place so that longeron screw attach holes can be match drilled |
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| Holes were match drilled using a right angle drill and clecoed as each one was drilled |
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| I covered up any openings with blue tape to prevent aluminum shavings from falling into hidden areas under the rear seat and baggage floors while drilling. Here all nutplate attach holes have been drilled and countersunk in the right longeron |
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| The same match drilling was repeated on the left side |
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| After match drilling the rear seat side panels were prepped for priming (along with some other pieces I had ready to prime) |
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| Nutplate attach holes drilled and countersunk into the left longeron |
Dates: May 5 2026, June 4 - June 17 2026
