This has been seemingly a lost summer as far as
RV-12 production goes. Between being out of town and over two weeks of
continuous rainy days not much has been accomplished except for prepping parts
for primer. The rains instantly switched to mid 90 degree days with
very high humidity - not good for outdoor painting … plus I had no desire to
spend time in a really hot humid shop.
Now that the temps and humidity have backed off a
bit, hoping to final prep parts tomorrow during the forecasted rain and have two days to
prime parts and top coat a few interior panels before leaving for Oshkosh.
A choice of interior paint has been made and now
it is a matter of logistics. The application data sheets for the primer says
top coating should be done between the first 24 to 48 hours and the top coat
paint chosen is a water reducible product and apparently does not like very high
humidity … so basically the weather must cooperate for two days straight. The
center channel will be top-coated and figured it would be best to do other interior
components as well to make the spray gun cleanup worth while … so the baggage floors
and seat pans are now being prepped for primer and top coat paint.
Deburring sharp edges on one of the baggage
compartment floor panels with a file.
Using a Scotch-Brite wheel to smooth the edges on
one of the seat pans.
The F-1224- L&R baggage compartment floors
required lots of dimpling where the nutplates are installed to accommodate the
removable inspection plates, along with dimpling some of the holes where the
side skin attaches to accomidate the flush rivets being used on the RV-12
project.
Dimpling one of many nut plate rivet holes on
one of the baggage compartment floor panels.
Using a small diamond file to file the seat belt
attach slot on a seat pan.
In a photo that was posted earlier, one could
see how the F1270A stiffener plate modification from Van’s is attached to the
center channel. To make life easier, I’ve elected not to install flush rivets
in this area because the F1270A plates are ultimately hidden by the wings. Because the forward 10 rivet holes on the left and right F-1224 baggage
compartment floor panels are behind the F1270A stiffener, they will not be dimpled.
