August 26, 2005 - Aft Fuselage
The first step with the aft fuselage is to cleco the F-711 and F-712 bulkheads to the F-779 tailcone (lower fuselage rear).  Well, as you can see, the tailcone piece doesn't fit.  It has to be bent to match the contour of the bulkhead.  The problem is, the tailcone is some fairly thick aluminum.  Bending it is a lot easier said than done.
Here is the tailwheel spring.  It is made of steel.  Until now, all the steel pieces in the kit have been power-coated.  But this is bare steel, so I will have to epoxy prime it.  Some other builders take theirs to the local powder-coating shop but I don't feel like spending $80 or so. 
I tried bending the tailcone piece by clamping it to the workbench with a dowel, then pulling on it by hand, but no joy.  I was getting frustrated so I called it a night.  I'll research how other people have done it on the web. 
 
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