Chapter 5
Fuselage Sides

Here are a few details of the unglassed fuselage sides. I decided to mount Vance's fuel gauges in a recessed/flat fashion. The white strip you see in the fuel gauge area is peel ply so I don't have to sand this area when glassing the fuel tanks. Hint: Cut your masonite before you mount the jigs...much easier than working on the floor. And nail the masonite in a way that they just touch the jigs...this will keep the curves from mal-forming. I used the Roto-Zip tool set at proper depth to cup out the control stick bevels. I also used it to cut the foam to angle by clamping it in a Work-Mate table,(Kind of make-shift table saw. MacGuyver would've been proud!)
One thing that comes to mind for these pictures: When you are putting the foam on the jigs, make sure you line them up using the spacers talked about in the plans. If you don't, you may end up with misalignment. Also, along the bottom edge of the fuselage walls, make sure the foam is trimmed to vertical based from the work table. At the aft end, it is very easy to trim perpendicular to the masonite, which is angled upward at that point and won't give you the right amount of foam to attach the bottom to.
I had pretty good luck using golf grip tape and some additional outdoor carpet tape to hold the foam to the masonite. In all, I think I may have 4-5 minor divots to repair in the fuselage exterior. Compared to 10-20 made using the "dabs of epoxy" technique. Hopefully, it will save me time in finishing in the future. Try to get this stage as exact as possible. I can see where errors made here may haunt you the rest of the project. So far, I've been spending what seems an inordinate amount of time reading plans, websites, and what-not. And I still manage to make mistakes, albeit minor ones. I can see why everyone says the second plane you build goes a lot quicker. If you find something isn't working, fitting, or just seems to be fighting you, step back, take a breath, and check your previous steps. You're probably getting ready to make a mistake!
Here are a few shots of the lower longerons being floxed on. Trust me... I had a lot of weights on the upper longerons to get them down to my satisfaction. The clamps are cheap..$1 apiece a Home Depot, and they come in real handy.

In the background of the above left shot, you'll see the cutting table and cloth dispenser. I cover them when not in use to minimize contamination.
Here, you see a couple shots of the aft end of the fuselage. I still have much of the glass peel plied, I plan on removing it as necessary. The foam to fill in LWX/LWY area is the same stuff used for the longeron spacers. Easy to work with. The extra sliver of foam you see at right was because I had wrongly assumed the electrical channel was parallel to the stringer. No one will know once the 6ply glass is on. The plan's instructions for making the plugs were ok. I ended up improvising a little with Saran Wrap, stir sticks, and 3/4x3/4 stock in order to get nice square sides and flat top. Below is a shot of the finished aft fuselage sides as installed in the firewall. Not too bad, if I do say so myself. Biggest mistake made this chapter: Not trimming the foam along the lower edge of sides plumb with the table. I had to add in a little foam to make it right. this error was discovered while making measurements for installation of the lower longeron
12/01/99