Lots of miscellaneous tasks in this post. First, I had been unsure how to position the nut plates shown in the first photo here. The instructions from Show Planes tell you to use a single leg nut plate at an angle so that the #6 screw will be 1/4 inch from the longeron edge. Well, this is actually in violation of the appropriate edge distance, so I wanted to do a little homework to see if this could be moved further in. In the process, I emailed Bryan with Showplanes. While the instructions tell you to use the existing hole for the center rivet of the nut plate, Bryan said the location of the bulkhead may force one to use the last rivet hole on the single leg nut plate. This is the case in my installation. These nut plates will be used to hold the two pieces of fiberglass shown in the photo below. These will eventually be mated to the instrument panel cover to create a sealed and smooth transition and a proper seal with the canopy. After placing the part, I’m confident there is a fair amount of wiggle room regarding the exact location of this nut plate, so I measured the appropriate edge distance for a #6 screw.
Next I discovered that I had improperly installed and drilled the new cockpit rails. The original Van’s Rails slope forward and down following the longeron, and this is what I did with the new rails. A later picture in the instructions, clued me in that the new rails stay flat and run even with the new cut to the forward fuselage skin. You can see the direction the rail must move in the first picture. Here is the first photo after the correction. You can see the original “mistake” holes here. I’m not worried about this extra set of holes. as this part is hardly structural and will still have plenty of strength for its intended purpose.
Here is a good diagram showing exactly how the installation is supposed to be positioned. Next it was time to start playing with the instrument panel. So exciting! I’ve put a lot of thought into the panel, and while I’m still quite a ways from putting the avionics together, its exciting to be reaching this part of the build.

The first project here is to trim the F-803B-L & R to accommodate the new canopy. This requires a new curve beginning with the 6th rivet. To accomplish this, I clecoed the F-803C in place at the 6th rivet and then curved the remaining portion to the cutout where the new cut would end. This made perfect line to guide my cut.
Here is the result after the cut. Next I installed the instrument sub-panels and began working with the rail to panel attachment points. The lower corner needs to be pulled out to be even with the bottom of the instrument panel. I began by drilling the rail and clecoing and then I simply marked the drill locations for the instrument panel attachment. This will be getting pop rivets anyways, and even with a 90 degree offset drill its almost impossible to get a good angle.
  My las project for the day was to start playing with some ideas for new side consoles. I’m undecided as to where or not I will do this. It LOOKS really good, but I want to be sure the cockpit ergonomics are just as good. My finishing kit is shipping this week, and I included the seat foam in the order. One of the first things I intend to do is get the seats upholstered. The reason is simple, I want to be able to sit in the cockpit, exactly as I eventually will, so that I can accurately fine tune the ergonomics. From what I gather online, the new side consoles with the sloping panels for switches usually move the throttle quadrant in and aft. This seems to be a deterrant for larger and taller individuals but preferred by shorter pilots. As I’m only 5’6″ & 140 lbs, I’m guess that I will prefer the ergonomics of the new consoles. Regardless, I’m not making this customization until I’m positive. While looks are important, ergonomics are more important!

Not a lot to report in this post. I deburred and dimpled both the forward and aft fuselage skins, and any miscellaneous parts associated with both that had not been previously completed.

The forward fuselage skin is dimpled for #6 screws where the skin attaches to the f-821afb, but the rivets are machine countersunk. Unfortunately, I didn’t take many photos during this. I will try to post a few when I next go to the shop. However, here is the process. The F-821afb will be sandwiched between the fiberglass instrument panel cover, and the forward fuselage skin. The #6 screws will attach to nut plates in the fiberglass parts. The AN426 rivets will simply hold the F-821afb in place. This requires a double flush rivet. Because we are using a double flush rivet, the bottom of the F-821afb is machine countersunk for the AN426 rivets, while the top of the F-821afb is machine countersunk to accept the #6 dimple. We don’t want to over countersink. If we dimpled the AN426 rivets, we would have to countersink both sides of the F-821afb where the AN426 rivets go. So, the preferred method is to countersink the forward fuselage skin. I did this with the forward fuselage skin clecoed in place, and the F-821afb clecoed in place. This way I could be sure the countersink would not chatter, and if any additional countersink occurred (which it did not) it would take material out of the F-821afb. This will all be much easier to see with a picture, so I’ll be sure to post one soon.

First on today’s agenda was to do a little practice for the double flush rivets I would need to set for the forward fuse skin to F-821afb. I did this by drilling and dimpling a few holes in some scrap aluminum that had a similar thickness to the parts in question. Then I used a few different countersink depths and different rivet lengths in order to get an idea of exactly what I was looking for. My basic research online indicated that the best method is to make the countersink slightly less than that required for the machine head, as the shop head will not fill that size countersink fully. Using the rivet gauge, I found that because of the countersink, you’d want a half size to a full size shorter rivet than would be required without the countersink. This makes sense considering the gauge measures from the top of the countersink and as a result there is more area for the shop head to compress into. A couple practice squeezes later, and I had the results I was looking for.
The final step was to use a scotchbrite wheel to make the surface perfectly even. It would probably be best to use a rivet shaver first and then clean the area with the scotchbrite. Regardless, I’m confident that this rivet technique is a non-issue and I’m ready to tackle the real thing. 

I also disassembled the forward fuselage, in order to begin the process of deburring and dimpling the associated parts. Before I could begin this though I needed to take off a little more area near where the forward skin meets the upper longerons to have a perfectly even and continuous fit.   
You can see the area that needs to be removed marked in black. The dremel and the scotchbrite wheels made fairly quick work of this.
  
Next I turned my attention back to a few remaining tasks on the cockpit rails. In the Van’s diagrams there are two rivet holes that are marked to not be countersunk, nor riveted. No such annotation exists on the Show Planes instructions and I couldn’t seem to find what exactly the purpose was in the diagrams. (I’m pretty sure I’m missing a set of diagrams, which is normal for the big drawings, but not for the preview plans.) After taking a quick look at Jack Savage’s RV-8, it was apparent that these two rivet locations will become nut plates to attach the sliding canopy rails. Since these will not be needed in my kit, I drilled, deburred and dimpled these remaining holes. 

When assembling the aft fuselage, I had overlooked two parts. These are supports to the forward most upper bulkhead and provide a location for securing baggage in the rear compartment.   The fit was a little off, so I focused primarily on edge distance for the longeron as that is the most structurally important part in this equation.
When I drilled the rear passenger shoulder harness attach points, I had not notched the parts for overlapping the bulkhead flange. This would have resulted in a skin distortion when the part was riveted in place, so I took care of this today. I began the process of removing the blue plastic, deburring and dimpling skins. I no longer mess with removing portions of the blue plastic in portions. Just take it all off. The skin will need plenty of prep prior to priming and painting anyways, plus these skins will have very little opportunity for scratches.