Fuselage center section #43 - Lower firewall prep

Cutting the firewall/footwell components apart.

Deburring

Lower corner brackets for the cowl attach.

Oil tank mount parts.

Firewall stiffeners.

For the first time I had to make my own tubular bushings from a piece of stock.  The prior ones were pre-made.  All of the ones on the RV-7 were DIY.

Cutting the firewall shelf stiffener channels.  These end up with the rudder pedals bolted to them.

Dimpling per the KAIs.

Dimpling nutplate attach holes.

One of these does not get dimples.

Glad to have the DRDT=2 to dimple these holes.  For some reason some of the firewall holes are pre-dimpled at the factory but they leave a few hard to get to ones for the builder????

Dimpling the ears of these nutplates.

Nutplates installed.

Had to machine countersink all these nutplate attach holes on the lower forward skin.  

Dimpled these holes on the firewall shelf per the KAI's.

And these nutplate attach holes.

This hole gets upsized for a fuel line fitting in the future.  Go slow and check often to push the bit around to keep the hole centered on the factory hole on the firewall shelf.

All done!

Nutplates installed.

Channels installed with nutplates.

All done!