Dave’s RV-7A Building Log

Deburred more of the left wing skeleton. I figure I’m about 3/4 done with that task.

I decided to move on to something more interesting. I clecoed together the left leading edge and squeezed the aft few rivets in each rib. I also riveted nut plates onto the joint plate with the NAS rivets.

Not sure why I started working on the wing doubler, other than it was handy. I deburred all of the holes and dimpled around the edge.

At this point, the leading edge is ready for two-person riveting. It’s been a few months since we’ve done any riveting together. I think it will be good to polish our skills on the leading edge and then tackle the fuel tank.

Feels like a lot of progress was made this weekend. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel on this wing.

The girls went to the mall, so I spent a little time dimplin’ and deburrin’. I dimpled the rest of the holes in the left leading edge skin. I then started deburring the millions of holes in the left main wing section. I got halfway through deburring the main ribs.

The weather is unusually warm and sunny for April, so I took the opportunity to prep and prime the left wing leading edge ribs and the right wing main ribs. Marathon priming session, but it’s much nicer to do it outside than in the paint booth. Before and after:

I was going to assemble the access cover reinforcement ring and nut plates with ProSeal, but the instructions say it isn’t necessary. Other builders have skipped it as well. I decided that less ProSeal is a good thing. I riveted on the ring and nut plates.

Deburred the rivet holes in the left leading edge skin and smoothed the edges. Dimpled the holes around the edges of the skin with the pneumatic squeezer. Adele removed the tags from the ribs.

Deburred and dimpled the left leading edge ribs.

First session with the ProSeal. I got everthing ready, rivet gun, back riveting set and plate, cut up shop paper towels and put them in a Pyrex bowl for pouring MEK over them. Soaked the rivets and cleaned the parts. I’m using the ProSeal tubes, so the mixing and application was very easy. I mixed it up a little early. I should have taped in all of the rivets first. I got into a pretty good rythm of frosting up a stiffener, pushing it down, back riveting, and then covering the shop heads with ProSeal. I have a fairly small back riveting plate. I ended up going off the end of it twice, but then didn’t do it again the whole rest of the session. Hopefully I’ve learned that lesson now. After riveting on the first stiffener, I noticed little dots on the skin. Doh! Forgot to wrap a rag around the rivet gun to keep it from spitting oil on the skin. Cleaned up with MEK and continued on.

I next attempted to back rivet the fuel flange. That did not go as well. The flange is curved, and I didn’t have it pushed down on the back riveting plate hard enough at the very front and back. The rivet heads were proud of the skin. Drilled them out (which is not fun with ProSeal everywhere) and tried them again pushing down on the flange this time. Worked much better. One rivet that I drilled out was stuck in the fuel vent line clip, so luckily I had a spare clip to use instead. Pulled off all of the tape and cleaned up with MEK.

I had planned to do the drain and coat some of the fuel sender parts, but 3 hours of messing around was enough for one day and I was getting hungry for dinner.

Dealing with the ProSeal and MEK was not too bad. But that’s what they all say after the initial session. I ended up using almost 1/2 of a tube. It was starting to set up pretty good after 1.5 hours, so I doubt I could have used the whole thing anyway.

Didn’t feel like starting the ProSeal, so I disassembled the leading edge. I prepped the joint plate by deburring all of the holes, dimpling the screw holes and the rivet holes for attaching to the leading edge, and countersinking slightly to use the NAS rivets for the plate nuts.

Using a Scotchbrite pad, I scuffed up all of the surfaces of the left fuel tank that will get ProSeal. The solvents will remove the pen marks, so I marked the parts with the electric pencil. Test fit everything and laid out the parts. Now I’m just debating about whether to dive in, or work on the leading edge.

Time to document the additional tools I’ve acquired over the past month or so.

From left to right starting at the top, there is the flaring tube, racheting crimper for electrical connectors, flexible shaft that I use sometimes with the electric screwdriver and deburring bit, an extra pair of cleco pliers (tired of always chasing down the one I have), black clecos (work great in the #8 screw holes), 3T tank dimple dies, angle die grinder with fine and coarse Scotch-brite wheels and some cut-off disks and mandrel, smaller fly wheel cutter that I picked up at Lowe’s, a Unibit with more steps and goes larger than the one I have, 1/4″ reamer for the bellcrank bushing, and finally a tap and die set from Sears.