Mass misc riveting
Julie was willing to help today, so it was time to take care of the miscellaneous riveting on the fuselage that I’ve put off now for quite a while. First up was the baggage ribs to F-706 bulkhead. I was able to squeeze some of the rivets a while ago, but some required bucking because of access issues. Even bucking these rivets proved challenging. The rib flange was half supported by the reinforcement for the bellcrank rib and half not. That made the rivet turn and the buck tail leaned over. No matter what we tried, they all leaned over. It was also a very difficult area to drill out. After drilling out 5 rivets, I decided to bail on bucking them and just used blind rivets.
Next up was to finish the half dozen or so fuselage skin rivets. We knocked those out pretty quickly and easily. Since those were finally complete, I was able to install the bolts and spacers in the outer-most seat rib to F-705 junction. I had to spread the forks a little bit with a wood wedge, but eventually got the spacers located just right. I installed the bolts, torqued them, and marked them with torque seal. I then solo riveted the two rivets on each side in that same rib flange.
I moved on to the bellcrank support. I installed that and was able to buck or squeeze all the rivets solo, except for the ones through the skin. I installed the bellcrank and spacers I made a while back and confirmed that everything fit perfectly. Per the instructions, I removed it and stored it away.
Keeping on with the pick-up work, I solo riveted one rivet on each side in the arm rest. I thought I was going to need help with them, but I ended up bucking it solo just fine. And finally, I squeezed the rivets at the top of the F-724 aft fuse bulkheads. The plans called for universal head rivets, but I decided flush rivets would look better and weren’t that much additional hassle.
This is a shot of all the stuff I needed today. We only set maybe 3-4 dozen rivets, but they were all challenging in their own special way.
To cap off the day, I set the seat skins in place and threw in a couple of cushions from the couch. It’s really bizarre to think that this thing is actually going to fly some day.
