Today it was 'black death' day (Pro-seal). We decided to use a layer of pro-seal between each of the baffle surfaces and parts. This is probably overkill but it should help with the vibrations and will provide an air seal for the joints.
We worked around all the reinforcement brackets and then moved to the real oil cooler baffle. That took the majority of the morning, most of the rivets were fine, one or two might need a little re-work but we can wait for the pro-seal to set first.
After lunch we went on with the forward baffles. The floor and side baffles need some careful sequencing to ensure that you can get rivet gun / squeezer / back riveting / bucking bars in. One non-standard thing we did was to use flush head (AN426) on all the internal surfaces. This has the obvious benefit to help keep a smooth surface for less turbulence inside the plenum but it also makes riveting simpler as the raised AN470 heads are harder to work with the bucking bar / back riveting plate.
The resulting 4 corners of the baffles. Not sure yet how we get them on the engine - but I'll trust that it is possible.
A fairly long day and not a huge amount to show for it - however I'm pleased with the results and the our clothes survied the process. I'm still not sure about the finishing of pro-seal joints.
I also sorted a test case with pro-seal, using three surfaces - one primed, one ALCLAD and one coated with boelube. This is testing for a good release agent for the custom access panels for the front upper deck skin.
