There were so many parts, and obviously, they wouldn’t be used all at once. I also did not have room for everything since I was trying to build everything in a two-car garage and to call it a two-car garage was a stretch. I opted for a storage unit for the parts I wasn’t using yet. I also should mention that the previous owner of the kit had already assembled the wings.
With the wings already built I chose to start on the fuselage. It came as two half-shells, shown above just sitting together but unattached.
The first step in almost every section of the manual is to level the aircraft. At this point that’s just the lower shell of the fuselage. I build a stand for it and then proceeded to level it. I quickly realized I would need a better approach to maintain level because this stand was not working.
Here you can see the modified stand. Just about the only pieces I kept from the first stand were the casters. I fit the stand to the contours of the lower shell, and attached the uprights you can see here to the flange. If you look close you’ll also see threaded rod on each of the four corners. These are used to adjust for level and they now hold everything perfectly level while I climb in and out while working on it.
I added tape to the sides with lines to indicate level. I then use a laser to double-check before I do any major work. The first time getting these lines located was a challenge. The manual gives a reference point in the front and one in the back but you have to figure out where it is the first time. Once that’s done the tape makes all subsequent checks much easier.
Next, I’ll start installing the bulkheads.