At some point in the last year I managed to bend my F-785 backrest brace – that's the vertical piece that goes between the F-705 bulkhead and the baggage floor, and forms the aft end of the flap motor housing. I'm not sure if I accidentally put too much weight on it from above, or inadvertently kicked it while crawling around inside the fuselage, but I definitely buckled one of the flanges. I bought the parts to make a new one many months ago, but only got around to building it this weekend.
Similar to Bob Collins' idea, I decided to reinforce the new backrest brace by riveting some angle-aluminum doublers on the inside:
The finished product, after several hours of fabrication… note how the rivets at the bottom end tie the doublers into the attach angle. Compared to the old one, the new brace is a couple ounces heavier and a heck of a lot stiffer.
Installed in the fuselage for final fitting:
Pneumatic squeezer and beer… you can theoretically build an airplane without either one, but why would you want to?
