The focus today was getting the external steps installed. This has been in the works for awhile. The first things I did was clean and prime the mating surface on the fuselage. I just used the rattle can primer for this job. I used the step as the guide for taping off the area.
Here’s the primed surface.
Since I’m worried about water entering the airplane, I applied a bead of RTV around the perimeter of the hole.
For ease of installation, I just used MSP blind rivets to attach the steps. I also applied a fillet of sealant around the perimeter of the baseplate to keep this area sealed off.
Here’s an inside view of the step. I added a bead of RTV between the hole and the tube. You can see the lower left 2 blind rivets didn’t actually set properly with the fuselage. I’ll drill these out next time.
