Started priming the lid this morning.

While that was drying, I installed a nutplate at the bottom on the forward face of the compartment. This ties it into the pushrod tunnel cover. I also added two more nutplates further up on this forward face. They will give me attachment points for a convenient pen holder.

I used the rivet gun to attach the lid support bracket to the flap actuator tunnel. I didn't get any smileys on the manufactured heads...

But over-bucked the shop heads. Whatever...these are not structural...I'm going to leave them as-is.

I used the squeezer to rivet the lower attachment bracket to the flap actuator tunnel.

There were a couple iterations of sanding and priming (not shown) while the previous work was going on. At one point I noticed an area that needed a bit of filling.

For time efficiency, I decided to fill it with bondo rather than mixing up a batch of micro and waiting for that to cure. Bondo on an airplane part?! Sacriledge!

I also (re)installed the nutplates I had removed from the sides of the flap actuator tunnel so, so long ago.

Ready for the (hopefully) final coat of primer.

I installed a couple nutplates to the right, forward floor pan. These will secure the forward flange of the elevator pushrod tunnel cover.

After that last layer of primer was dry and sanded, it was time to spray a finish coat. Unfortunately, my can of satin black spraypaint (left) had lost it's propellant over the past nine(!) years. Ran over to Lowe's and picked up a fresh can (right). Unfortunately, I noticed when I returned home that the outside temperature was higher than the 90 degrees max temp recommended for spraying this paint. I guess I'll defer painting until tomorrow.

I also masked off everything around the flap actuator tunnel, except for the top of the lid support bracket. This will be visible with the lid open and may be slightly visible with the lid closed. Mostly I want to cover up the hole I filled in.