Finally. After more than a year of reading, practicing, gathering tools and parts, and prepration, I drove my first solid rivets today in the center spar. All of my preparation paid off. I was able to drive every rivet so that it meets all of the specs as far as the shop head is concerned. Honestly, it went faster and easier than I had imagined. Many thanks to Dave Ruddiman for the use of his rivet gun. It works like a charm. My method of using an Avery c-frame riveter and a rivet gun to drive the rivets makes this almost a pleasure. Every rivet is driven squarely and perfectly. Good practice for the outboard spars. Tomorrow I'll finish this thing up by bolting it together, drilling and pulling the A5 rivets for the top section, and making the cutouts for the wing spar clearance. Big hurdle cleared today. Solid riveting was the one thing in this entire project I wasn't sure I could pull off, but now I see that it's not going to be a problem at all.
