Caravelle's bulkhead restoration - Part 2 of 3

Suomeksi

A passenger seating area, consisting of four seat rows, will be built in the front part of the cabin. Seats for three passengers will be assembled on the right-hand side and double seats on the left-hand side. The overhead storage shelves and wall surfacing material on the right side were dismantled by the Swedes while the aircraft was still in Arlanda. With the four seat rows the cabin would look rather odd without the overhead shelves, so we moved some shelves from the rear of the cabin on left-hand side to the front on the right side.

The passenger seating area is separated from the open cabin area at the back with a new bulkhead. This kind of original bulkhead (or parts of it) did not exist in the aircraft, so it had to be made.

Building the new bulkhead

We had plenty of 10 mm plywood left from an earlier work phase, so we decided to use this material to make the new bulkhead. This saved a good amount of money; it will be needed for other purposes before the interior is ready. The outcome looks good and resembles an original bulkhead, which meets our requirements.

We used the bulkhead halves of the cabin front as a template to define the shape of the bulkhead parts. The outline of the bulkhead was drawn on a plywood board. It should be noticed that the line of overhead storage shelves on the left-hand side continues further back in the cabin and therefore we had to shape an opening in the bulkhead for the shelf. A rough sketch for the size and location of the opening can be seen on the plywood board in the photograph.

After the bulkhead halves had been cut to shape, they were test-assembled several times and the curvature on the cabin wall side had to be modified before the final shape was reached.

The plywood parts were sanded, and the largest holes and dents were spackled before the elements were surfaced.

Surface treatment

Both sides of the new bulkhead halves were surfaced using the same vinyl coated wallpaper which was used on the front bulkhead in the cabin. Vertical plastic strips were fastened on the aisle side of the bulkhead edges to protect the plywood material and to give the wallpapered sides a finishing touch.

Outcome

The surfaced bulkhead halves were assembled into place and fastened at the top and bottom with small corner brackets. At the bottom they will be covered when the carpet is installed and at the top they were hidden inside the overhead storage shelves.

There is a narrow gap between the cabin wall and the bulkhead, it will be filled with a strip of foamed plastic in the finalising phase next spring. The asymmetry of the bulkhead halves can be seen in the picture. The reason for the asymmetry is that the seat arrangement will be 3+2 seats, and the aisle is not in the middle of the fuselage but slightly on the left-hand side. (The picture was taken from the front of the aircraft towards the rear.)

Photos by Ismo Matinlauri.

Translation to English by Erja Reinikainen.