As I get close to finishing off the F-404 bulkhead, the only remaining part was to finish the interior side with the F-404G Bulkhead Caps. These are straightforward and as I forgot to order these with my RV-4 wing kit, I ended up fabricating them myself but as you will see, that’s no big deal.
![](https://f1rocket-hangar.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/20210309_121951-1-940x940.jpg)
As per the drawing show above, you can see that I easily made these with some simple layout and bending.
![](https://f1rocket-hangar.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/20210422_155101-940x940.jpg)
The parts fit!
![](https://f1rocket-hangar.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/20210422_155420-940x940.jpg)
As shown in the drawing above, these caps are fastened in place with LP4-3 pulled rivets. The rivet layout is also provided in the drawing, which is what I stuck with as shown in the picture below. Watch out to make sure you keep proper edge distances!
![](https://f1rocket-hangar.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/20210507_103824-940x940.jpg)
In the picture above, you will note how these caps are even and look to be square with the bulkhead frame upright formers. As shown in the picture below, I had to offset these caps quite a bit to get them to appear to sit square with the frames. I think this is because the rear frame is spaced slightly closer together than the forward side.
![](https://f1rocket-hangar.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/20210507_103836-940x940.jpg)
The caps are clamped in place and ready to be drilled.
![](https://f1rocket-hangar.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/20210507_105648-940x940.jpg)
All the cap fastener holes were dilled to #40.
![](https://f1rocket-hangar.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/20210507_144904-940x940.jpg)
![](https://f1rocket-hangar.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/20210507_144922-940x940.jpg)
Here’s a shot of the overall bulkhead. All looks good. Now it’s time to drill these up to #30.
![](https://f1rocket-hangar.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/20210508_103356-940x940.jpg)
Here are a few more close-up pictures of the details.
![](https://f1rocket-hangar.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/20210508_171745-940x940.jpg)
![](https://f1rocket-hangar.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/20210508_171751-940x940.jpg)
![](https://f1rocket-hangar.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/20210508_171802-940x940.jpg)
![](https://f1rocket-hangar.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/20210508_171812-940x940.jpg)
And with that, I’m pretty much as far as I can go with the F-404 bulkhead for now. I’m going to save all final riveting until I have it built into the fuselage. Time to move onto getting the wings built!
Please comment. I love to hear from my readers. Thanks again for coming along for this ride, you make my work worthwhile.
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