Today I finished the baggage door. There’s a problem with the RV-10 baggage door. The top surface of the door structure has a curve in it, which doesn’t match the fuselage. The plans instruct you to build the door on the bench. If you do this, it may not fit very well, and it’ll bulge out about 2mm due to the mismatched curve problem.
I got some advice on these issues, and built the door on the fuselage, forcing it into the fuselage shape while riveting it together. I built the door from the hinge out, and it worked out really well. In addition, like many builders I arranged the hinge pin as two halves, which can be inserted from the inside, making the baggage door easy to remove. This also allows the hinge to be set almost flush with the fuselage, rather than protruding out as the plans indicate (since in the standard plans, the hinge pin is inserted from the outside).
Riveting the outside skin of the baggage door is a bit awkward. I managed to slip once and put a very slight dent in the skin near the hinge line. This is easy to fill prior to painting, annoyed me a bit though because it’s the first rivet gun blemish on the entire fuselage.
I’ve now done enough to the fuselage to paint the interior. Before doing that I have to make a water trap to properly dry the compressor air before the filters.