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Jims RV-8
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Date: 6-10-2017
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Number of Hours: 1.80
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Manual Reference: 8-71
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Brief Description: Baggage Door – continued
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We had some time left in the shop and I had some rivets that needed to be done on the front baggage door so Bob and I finished those off as well. This really is a two man job. The baggage door itself is curved and the rivets are a little hard to get to because the ribs have two flanges for the inner and outer skins…so I was glad to have Bob’s help on these.
After we finished the outer skin rivets it was time for the inner skin rivets – which are blind rivets. The instructions say that you cleco the inner skin to the baggage door assembly, then lay the baggage door in place on the fuselage and verify that it fits flush around the perimeter. If it does not, remove it, then tweak/twist it slightly to get a flush fit on the fuselage. Well, this is a frequent area of RV-8 building that does not come out easily…and the -8 was no exception. The initial fit wasn’t really that bad, but the aft side was a little “proud” (raised) when the front side was held down. Bob worked his magic and smoothed out the radius of the aft rib using a piece of hardwood until the aft skin laid down nicely. Of course, we needed to uncleco the inner skin for this exercise. We were happy with the flush fit and it was time again to cleco on the inner skin and secure the door in place with duct tape or in our case, straps.
This time I climbed into the front of the cockpit and with my back holding down the seemingly sharp crotch belt strap I went to town removing a cleco and replacing it with a blind rivet one by one. This is another two man job as Bob was able to grab the cleco/gun and hand me a rivet/puller and then vice versa. There really isn’t room under there to move around, much less set down and pick up clecos, cleco pliers, rivets and rivet pullers. I had just about finished the aft side row of rivets (making sure to work from the middle out) when all of the sudden, “BAM!” the rivet puller exploded! OK, time to eat some dinner and be thankful that my readers were in place and no metal is lodged in my eyeballs...
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I'm not really that fat - just sloping down into the footwells
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baggage door strapped in place
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