Dave’s RV-7A Building Log

Did some deburring and dimpling on the right top skins.

Finished wiring up the #$@% capacitive plates. It’s not fun trying to get the connectors on the inboard plate, but I finally got it.

Prepped and primed the right leading edge ribs. Also touched up a few spots on the aileron stiffeners and brackets.

Finished deburring the right top inboard skin.

In case I didn’t mention it before, this is my method for removing the plastic from flat skins. Works very well.

Got the flaring tool back, so I’m working on the tank again. I flared the vent line (remembering the sleeve and nut this time) and worked on installing the capactive plates.

Deburred and dimpled part of the wing doubler and deburred part of the right inboard top skin.

Finished deburring and dimpled the right leading edge skin.

The fuselage kit arrived.

I opened the tops and dug out a bunch of the paper. I don’t want to dive too far into it until I get the wings wrapped up.

Humongo bag o’ parts.

Worked on the right leading edge a bit since I’m blocked on the tank. I finished up drilling the nut plates for the splice plate and deburred the holes. I also deburred most of the holes in the leading edge skin before the cordless screwdriver battery died. I need to get a second one of those things.

Started putting the capactive plates and fuel vent line in the right tank. Then I noticed that my flaring tool is still loaned out. I guess I won’t be finishing this tank until I get that back.

Deburred the rear baffle.

Cold ProSeal is my new friend. After asking on the RV7 group, the consensus was to chill the ProSeal but not mess with the hardener ratio. I kept the ProSeal tube in the fridge right up until I needed it. It was slightly harder to mix, but not as bad as I thought it was going to be. I also kept a bucket of ice water nearby and dunked the whole gun in that while I was riveting. Worked like a charm. I had 1.5 hours working time and probably could have gone at least another half hour. It also helped that the shop was 10 degrees cooler. That at least made it much more pleasant for us.

With Julie’s help I sealed and riveted in the last three interior ribs in the right tank and smeared ProSeal on the shop heads, including the ones I couldn’t do from the last session. I also had enough time and ProSeal to do the anti-rotation bracket for the fuel pick-up. I could have even done more stuff, but didn’t have anything else ready to go.

This tank is well over half way done. That’s a good feeling.