Ok when you read all the forums - the riveting of this part is extremely painful. You can see from the photos that this is the case.
Note 1:
Pad your vice jaws with about two layers of duct tape. Don't use rubber or foam soft jaws, they will still let the tube rotate. Clamp the tube in your padded vice. Squeeze (preferrably with pneumatic squeezer) in one quick motion. Don't do it slowly.
What happens otherwise is that the tube or squeezer rotates slightly as you squeeze. By holding the tube in the vice you prevent it from rotating. By squeezing rapidly you use your pneumatic squeezer's substantial rotational inertia in your favor. It's easier for the rivet to squeeze straight than it is for it to twist your squeezer that rapidly. If you squeeze slowly, it's no big deal for the rivet to swing your squeezer through a bit of arc and bend over.
Note 2:
I clamped my hand squeezer to my workbench to squeeze those rivets: http://rvplane.com/showthumb.php?picname=IMG_7048.JPG It made it easy to use one hand to squeeze the rivet, and the other to hold the rod. Worked perfectly.
The called for AN470AD4-12 rivets were way too long and the one I did toppled over on itself. In the end I used a AN470AD4-11 rivet and it turned out great.
Note 3:
Why not try shaving the 12's down to about 11.5's ?
Note 4:
After 2 unsuccessful tries at this myself, I conacted Van's. They told me that these rivets should be bucked, and not squeezed. I ended up taking my last attempt (Somewhat ugly, but workable. Van's told me ugly doesn't count and that there is very little force applied to these areas, so they were probably good anyway.) and had them welded as an added safety factor.
Note 5:
Try filling the inside of the tubes with epoxy/flox where the rivets go through. Redrill the holes through the flox and try to set the rivets. Makes it alot eas
