Not much information is given about this part of the airplane in the plans so this is another one of those make-it-up-as-you-go parts. About the only change I made is I went with a little larger diameter tube to support the front of the turtledeck. I did this mainly because I wanted some rollover protection. Besides that I am trying to make this as simple and light as possible. On some pictures I have seen of Skybolts under construction (primarily the black and whites that used to be sold by Steen Aero Lab) there was a piece of steel plate that ran from the front cabane to about the front elevator support. I initially installed this but when I drilled the holes that would have been used to attach the turtledeck I was getting interference from the upper longeron. Either I mounted the strip too high or it wasn't wide enough. After thinking about it I came up with a different way to attach my turtledeck that should be slightly lighter and possibly simpler to install so I removed the strip from the back of the back seat aft. I left the rest to attach the coaming.

 

I started by marking the height of the headrest tube and the width and trying to get a smooth curve. I did this using welding rod. As you may have noticed I like using welding rod for this sort of thing because it gives smooth even curves. First I stuck a pin at the apex of the curve and bent it around holding the rod at the bottom until I got the shape I wanted. Then I used pins to hold it in place and traced the shape onto the poster board.
After doing the left side I repeated the process for the right side.

 

 

 

 

This is the shape I ended up with.

 

 
To bend the tube I made this former to bend it around. There is a piece of wood sandwiched between the two prominent boards shown here that is cut just slightly smaller than the pattern I made above. Then I packed the tube I was using with sand and plugged each end. This was to keep the tube from flattening while being bent.

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I used the same technique as bending all of the previous tubes, bending it slowly a little bit at a time.

After removing the top board this is what the tube ended looking like. You might notice that at the bottom of the board that the tube was bent around that it tapers in. That was so that I could bend it slightly past where I wanted it so when I got the rebound it would be where I wanted it.

 

Here I am setting it up to tack weld it on. I am using the drywall square to insure it is perpendicular to the upper longerons. I also set it back slightly from the cluster it is near so after I add a headrest there will be room for some padding if I should elect to use a padded headrest.

After I got the front former tacked on I made a pattern for the baggage compartment floor using poster board.

 

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This is the finished product. You can't tell in this picture but the front edge of the floor is bent down at a 90o degree angle to add a little stiffness. I could have done the same to the back edge but it was kind of an afterthought.

Here is the strip I am using to hold the turtledeck down. It probably won't need holding down once the fabric is applied but just in cast. Plus it will keep it from moving around of falling off it I rotate the fuselage while covering it. The holes drilled in it are used to mark the turtledeck floor for drilling.

This is the front turtledeck mount. It is bent at a 90o angle also.

This is the turtledeck floor partially drilled for nutplates.

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The nut plates have been installed in this picture. I made it so the nut plates will be installed from the bottom on the mid and aft mounts since my arms aren't long enough to reach in there to screw them in. The front nut plates are installed so the screws will be installed from the top.

Using poster board I am making the pattern for the turtledeck. I made a couple of them before I came up with what I wanted. I left the front a little long since I haven't decided how to do the front end of it.

 

Transferring the pattern to aluminum sheet. You should bend metal across the grain but there is no way to do that with this size of a part. This isn't really a "bend" though so I don't think this will be a problem since there really won't be any stress point like on a 90o bend.

Rough fitting the turtledeck. After I got it to fit the way I wanted I bent the edges down just a little bit so it would transition to the floor edges better. Then I marked the turtledeck for rivet holes along the edge and drilled them with a 1/16" bit. Next was to put the turtledeck back on and transfer the hole marks onto the floor so I could drill matching holes.

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After getting the turtledeck fitted I had to make the supports. This is one of the patterns I was making to get a good fit. I plan on using epoxy to mount it once I get a good fit and get the pieces riveted together.

To make the center support I started by making a pattern that fit the outside of the turtledeck. I made the pattern fit slightly behind where I wanted the support to compensate for the thickness of the aluminum. After several of these I finally got one that fit right and had a nice smooth curve.

 

This is a piece that I am trial fitting. I had thought about making the center support in this shape but then thought that if anything slid all of the way to the back I would never get it out.

I wanted to be able to put something long in my baggage compartment as long as it wasn't to heavy (fishing pole, golf putter) so I decided to put a door in my center support to fit them through.

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After I install a piano hinge this is how the door will open. Although not shown I have installed a couple of semicircular pieces (actually they are round but look like semicircles from the front) at the top on either side of the hole to stop the door from going backwards. I will put some Velcro on those circles to hold the door closed.

This is the pattern for the headrest. I haven't ever seen how a headrest is attached but I am trying not to have any nut plates in the turtledeck skin around the front of the turtledeck. I think these would be a source of dimples that might show up after covering. The only attachments I want going through the turtledeck skin are the rivets holding it to the floor. These will be below the level where the fabric leaves the turtledeck so they won't show.
That's all I have done on this so far. It is really all done except for putting the hinge on the door along with the Velcro in the center support, riveting the turtledeck skin to the baggage compartment floor and figuring how to do the headrest. After I get that all done it will be ready to epoxy the supports in and then mount it. Watch the "Skybolt" page for notification when these pictures have been added.