Dave’s RV-7A Building Log

Julie helped me rivet the last few rivets in the very aft fuselage. These were some tricky rivets to get, but they turned out great. I must say our riveting skills have really improved over this project. We flipped the aft fuselage back upside down in preparation for joining with the center fuselage.

Next item was to fit the longerons into the aft fuselage. I enlarged the slot in most of the bulkheads (thanks to the advice of Dan and others), but somehow missed the F-706 bulkhead. No big deal. I took out the file and widened the slot. Also, the slot in left longeron wasn’t quite wide enough, so I took care of that as well.

I figured out I could squeeze some of the rivets on the F-711 and F-712 bulkhead, so I did that. There’s still a few left to do that are going to require some help.

I’m not happy with the way the skins look around the F-712. The bulkhead is making the skin pull in right in front of the bulkhead. The flanges were at the right angle. I’m now starting to wonder if there’s something wrong with my F-712 bulkhead. I remember thinking that the two halves of the bulkhead seemed to be the exact same size, when one should have been slightly larger than the other. I’m thinking that maybe I received an incorrect part. I took some pictures to try to show the issue, but they really don’t show it very well.

[ed. After looking at this area again in the morning, I don’t think there’s a problem. The side skins are pulled in slightly in front of the F-712 bulkhead, but it’s nothing major.]

Super-duper productive riveting day. Julie was in the mood for riveting, so we knocked out most of the rest of the aft fuselage. I think the rivets between the last two bulkheads will be easier to do with the tailcone upright, so we left those for now. I was worried about the joint between the side skin at the aft-most tailskin. There was a bit of a gap there, but Julie was able to set the rivets perfectly. It pulled the skins together nicely.

I also had a heck of a time setting one of the rivets in the corner between the bottom and side skins that was right up against the J stiffener. After two attempts at bucking the rivet, I ended up back-riveting that one and it turned out great. I know some builders back-rivet the whole fuselage. We’re getting good results with bucking, so we’ll stick with it.

Julie was indeed the master riveter today. We had probably the lowest percent of bad rivets ever.

Julie was in the mood for riveting, so we pounded out some rivets. We got the front half of the aft fuselage done, which looks to be about 2/3 of the riveting on this section. It turned out quite nicely. Julie is the awesome riveter. She ran the rivet gun from the outside, while I bucked from the inside. I had to drill out and re-do a couple of rivets, mainly because I was having trouble getting the bucking bar on the rivets in the bend between the bottom and sides.

Clecoed together the aft fuselage. Julie helped me flip the assembly over, and I put rivets in the holes and taped them in. It’s ready for riveting.

After spending an extended Thanksgiving out of town, I was eager to do a little something on the project. I touched up the primer on a few spots on the aft bottom skin.

Riveted the aft-most 2 bulkheads to the bottom tail skin. It took quite a while to get the bulkheads situated right, and a few of the rivets had to be re-done. Considering how difficult this part is, I think it turned out pretty good.

I was washing the aft bottom skin to get the purple “Alcoa .0025″ stamps off of them, and noticed how nicely the water beads up on the one spot that I primed with the rattle can. I decided to just wash the skin thoroughly and prime the rivet lines and the edges next to the built-in stiffeners. It only takes a few minutes to prime, and I’d rather be safe than sorry.

Speaking of the stamps, it’s funny how they wash right off with water, but are fairly difficult to remove with MEK.

I’m looking forward to getting the aft fuselage clecoed together. A friend of my daughter came over with her little brother to “see the plane,” but they didn’t seem too impressed. Other than the wings and miscellaneous tail parts, there really isn’t anything cool for little kids to identify.

Using a rattle can, I primed the aft fuselage parts that still needed it, namely the stiffeners, the bottom tail skin, and the aft skins where they overlap other skins. I debated about priming the inside of the entire bottom skins, but decided against it. From everything I’ve read, the alclad coating on the aluminum should be sufficient protection.

Set up the C-frame and dimpled the aft fuselage skins.

Finished deburring and dimpled around the edges of the second aft side skin. Now it’s time to haul the C-frame out and make some noise.