rivet

Vertical Stabilizer is all but done. We have one rivet at the forward tip that we couldn’t set. We’ll try bucking with a little piece of metal we’re borrowing from a friend and also order an AT633 bucking bar as I’m sure we’ll run into the need for it again soon enough. We also aren’t going to start the fiberglass work until the end. Perhaps we’ll work on that while waiting for the Wing Kit to show up.

The little 3/32″ rivets buck so much easier than the 1/8″, it’s amazing. Donna ran the bucking bucking bar while I ran the gun. We only needed to rill out 3 rivets, all of which cooperated. I highly recommend using rivet tape on the machine head, kept the surface from being marred. We reused the 8 little strips for all the rivets on each side. I also highly recommend wrapping the bucking bar with tape to prevent scraping up your freshly painted Ribs/Spars.

Next, back to the Horizontal Stabilizer!!

Got home a little late from work but still managed to get a few hours worth of work done. Today I riveting up the vertical stabilizer rear spar. I used my pneumatic squeezer and yoke for all but 2 rivets that the bottom most rudder brackets interfere with the yoke itself. I’ll need to buy my back riveting plate so I can back rivet these. Alternatively I could use the flush set in the gun and a bucking bar. Choices Choices!

Also, above the flush rivets on the drawing where it calls out where the fuselage bolts up to, there’s a hole on the centerline in my parts that’s not on the drawing. I’m not sure if this is a third hole that will get a bolt later, or if it is supposed to be drilled out to run wires though or if it gets a 470 rivet. Will call Vans and find out tomorrow if I can’t find it on the forums.