Zodie

Now that I have all of the parts located and my Z sections bent I am ready to start on the fuselage.

Took quite some time to make sure everything was lined up. Used my drill press to cut it all.

All assembled. The edge distance on the large hole in the middle is tight. This is for the tie down ring. It is by the plans, should be ok.

I made a simple joggle tool out of two pieces of oak and screwed them together on the end with a washer for spacing.

A tap from a hammer

Works well

Have all the stiffeners clecoed and spent quite a bit of time making sure the longerons were laid out correctly. I also made sure it was all braced for drilling

This was one area that I thought was ok till I turned it over. The predrilled rivet line needs to be in the center of the longeron. Took quite a bit of fitting to get it perfect. Thought it was on but when I double checked it it was off. So the second look and double checking paid off.

Used this nifty tool I found at the Yard Store as a jig for the nut plates in the access hatch

First drill the hole for the screw. Then put the jig in the hole with the pin up and drill

Then turn over the jig with the pin in the hole you just drilled

Works great

A view of the door in the hatch

The door out of the hatch

Here is the dimple set I got at The Yard Store

Does a nice job.

Everything primed

Now the regular die in the squeezer

Here you can see the rivets set and the nutplate

A look at the lower rudder hinge

This is one of the handiest tools I have made. It is just a piece of Oak that i use to give a little leverage when installing the rivets prior to pulling.

Everything all pulled

More details of the cutout

A look at the lower hinge.

Took quite a bit of time making sure everything was square. Dry assembled, marked the holes in the lower skin, checked edge distance, reassembled, and drilled.

Detail of the stiffeners

Used the level to make sure all was level and then the plumb bob to check all was square. I wish I had marked the CL of the lower panel prior. I used angles to locate the center and then drew a line. Worked well

I decided to mount the rudder horn when I finished the rudder. I should have left it off. I had to do some rework on the rudder so I drilled out the horn. I had to do a little rework on the horn to make sure I had the 20 degrees of travel. I also needed to trim the middle spacer on the lower hinge. After this rework it all worked fine. +/- 20 degrees of travel.

This is the upper rudder hinge. I dry fit the rudder to find the location, fore and aft for this part. It was cool to see the rudder. Ran out of hands or I would have got a pic. I was a little worried about the edge distance on this piece. But it turned out ok. I also emailed ZAC and asked about the lack of 2d on this part. They assured me that because of the thickness of the of the part and that it was bushed it was good for this application.

When I built the rudder I mislocated the rudder horn. I ended up with some of the holes a bit oblong. So what I did was use a backing plate on this side and added 4 rivets to the middle of the pattern. I then fay sealed the assembly with RTV. This of course is bad, as I found out during the EAA inspection of the left wing. So I removed it here. I was amazed how easy it was to drill out the lower rudder rib and clean off the RTV. For a fix I changed my approach to what you see here. Which is using angles rather than the backing plate. This was easier to do and transfers the load into the flanges. I am happy with the fix!

Back to the build. Lots o Clecos.

Laid out the the hole pattern on the horizontal Stab attach brackets

Drilled and Clecoed

Took a while to locate the exit holes for the rudder cable. Really had to search the plans to determine the height of the slot. The only place I could find a dimension was in the photo assembly guide.

Installed.

Deburred, Cleaned and then primed. This variprime is really nice.

Starting to look like something

There was a lot of work here. Took a lot of extra care to make sure it was all plumb and square.

I debated how much to rivet. I left off the forward two stiffeners to allow for a trim later when the forward longeron is attached. I also left off the fairleads for the rudder.

Dry fit the stab. COOL.

I was a little concerned at first with the fit on the stab attach angles. The spacing on the front and rear are fine, but it looked too far forward.

But after stewing and looking at the plans I realized that this right where the drawings show the attach. So another problem solved by looking at the plans.