Brief Description: Riveted HS 404 and 405 to front spar.
This morning I made some good progress and got back on track. Over the weekend I borrowed some larger diameter rivets (5/32") from Donnie and installed two of them in the holes that I had mangled last week. The first picture shows HS404 riveted to the front spar. Note the larger diameter rivet on the bottom left.
After getting my screw up's fixed, I moved on to riveting the HS707 rib to the top side of the skin as shown in picture two and three. This process went pretty well and I took my time as it was kind of awkward holding the bucking bar underneath the skin to form the shop head while using the rivet gun in my other hand on the top of the skin. This will hopefully get easier because I have about 13,857 left to do. The rivets turned out well and are smooth to the surface of the skin due to the dimpling process which produces less drag as the airframe moves through the air.
In the movie "The Aviator" Howard Hughes tells his mechanics to make an airplane with a smooth surface rather than having round head rivets all over the skin which slowed him down when racing. I don't know if that is historically accurate, but my RV will be slippery with flush rivets.
