When I looked at the fuselage in the box, I noticed that the back of the cabin was crooked. Looking closer, I noticed that it was forced into a curve due to a mismatch in the holes. The first defect?

Maybe this next pic shows it a little more clearly. It was really quite pronounced and I spent more than a little time looking and considering the reasons.

The culprit. Three holes don't line up. Now it could be that the holes in the ribbed plate are punched correctly and the rib itself is installed incorrectly. When I measured the relationship of the right side (left in the picture) to the left side, they came out the same with the screws removed. You can see that the holes don't line up when the rib is straightened. I don't like it much, but it doesn't look serious. It is a defect, either in the hole punching or the assembly, but which?

Below is one solution. I can just drill out the nut plate and reorient it along the yellow line while moving it slightly to align with the rib-plate hole. Yes, I need to redrill, but only slightly. If I drill the rib-plate, I will have an eccentric hole that will show and not be very strong. I am going to do nothing right now. I'll spend a little more time measuring and thinking....

Frustrated with the misalignment problem, I pulled out the old spray gun and took up a new cause.

I sanded, etched and primed 2 sheets of aluminum as sample paint sheets. I want to check out some base colors. I have narrowed the base color of the RV7 to a solid blue or red. In the blue category, I've narrowed it to 2 possibilities, Patriot Blue or Midnight Blue. They are both pretty dark and will show any imperfection.

I sanded the primer and shot one good base coat of each blue. After about an hour, I shot the first coat of clear urethane. Ten minutes later, I shot a second coat of clear. You can see the lighter blue on the right. The dark blue is as dark as it looks. I guess that's why they call it Midnight Blue! Tomorrow I will check them out and see if one is more exciting than the other. Next, I'll shoot some reds. Is this part of building the plane? I mean, do I have to charge building time toward it? I guess I do...

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