(page 29A still) Longeron imperfections haunt me again

With the panel base, panel ribs, stack angles and other assorted bits riveted together, it was time to cleco the assembly to the firewall upper and then match-drill the longerons.  The edges of the panel base, it was stressed in the build manual, should be parallel to and, I deduced, flush with the longerons.

Didn't happen.  The guy doing the Homebuilt Help video had the same problem, and I did as he did:  wedge a board between the longerons to spread them a wee bit.  Anything that requires drilling the longerons strikes fear in my heart.  I can't bear to contemplate what I would do if I trashed the longerons at this stage of the build.  Probably melt the whole thing down and sell it for scrap aluminum.

The procedure I used was as follows:  Starting with the aft-most edge of the panel base, spread longerons until alignment occurred.  Match drill and cleco one hole.  Press the forward edge of the longeron in until aligned, drill and cleco forward-most hole.  Match-drill the holes between clecos.  This worked well on the right side, not so much on the left.  The forward, left edge misses being parallel by about 1/32 of an inch.

Yeah, yeah, I know.  We're not building the space shuttle.  Still, it's irratating.

I am pleased, however, to see these various pieces of aluminum continue to coalesce into something that resembles an airplane.  I should be able to start the wings next week.  Still don't know where I can store them when they're built.  Where there's a will, there's a way.

(page 29-A) Wait....what?

Overall, I think the build manual is quite well written and the CAD drawings are terrific.  However, I found the words describing what needed to be done to the canopy ribs, doublers, attach angles and panel base to

be, uhh..., challenging to comprehend.  The Homebuilt Help videos actually seemed to contradict the manual.  Turns out, there was a reason for part, but not all, of the confusion.

For the canopy ribs (shown), I sort of figured out which holes were supposed to be machine countersunk rather than dimpled, though the machine countersinking never made complete sense considering the thickness (or lack thereof) of the aluminum sheet.

Update 9-8-13:  Just discovered that the bolt holes on the aft flange don't get dimpled (had to un-dimple them with a flat set).  The bolt holes on the other flanges do get dimpled.  The rivet holes in all flanges get machine countersunk.  The rivet holes in the web get dimpled.

The panel base was another story.  It was obvious that the piece delivered with my fuselage kit was different from the picture in the build manual.  An e-mail to the Mothership confirmed that I had been shipped an older, pre-Skyview, part, which I now have to modify.  Getting the correct part would mean that all the dimpling and riveting I had done to the part I have would be for naught.

I'm blaming my recent lack of progress on having to teach a new course this semester.  It's been a while since I actually had to prepare lectures from scratch.  I had forgotten how many hours of preparation are required before I can stand in front of the class and speak in a semi-intelligent fashion for an hour and fifteen minutes.  I told the Dean of Engineering that he is responsible for delaying my first flight by at least two months.