KitLog pro

Powered By Kitlog Pro v2.0

Dave's RV-7A Builder's Log
' style=
Date:  9-13-2016
Number of Hours:  3.50
Manual Reference:  
Brief Description:  Riveting & fuel system

A rare school night session at the hangar, but I was happy to have some additional time to finish up some odds and ends prior to Saturday’s aft skin riveting. I started by finishing up the riveting along the aft baggage bulkhead, which included drilling out and reshooting about 8 rivets that had been overdriven the first time. I determined that the culprit was that I had inadvertently held the bucking bar at an angle due to the constant curve of the skin along the bulkhead, which caused the shop head to form somewhat offset and then deform. Problem corrected and I then shot the rivets along the longeron all the way back to the bulkhead. With that, I really only have the longeron and center bulkhead left to shoot…shouldn’t be more than an hour and a half and I’ll have 99% of the rivets on this thing set.

Turning to the fuel system, I started working on an issue that had bugged me for awhile. As previous posts detail, my attempts at getting professional tubing bends had proven somewhat futile, and after two attempts at using 3003 for the wing-to-fuel selector, I had “settled” for good enough. Not really wanting to settle, I purchased some 5052 awhile back and had used it, with great results, to plumb the filter-to-fuel pump and pump-to-firewall runs. So, tonight I pulled out all of the 3003 from the fuselage…and unceremoniously dumped it on the floor. I figured out that by using a union between the wing and the selector, I should be able to navigate one piece through the gear mount and out the fuselage, and a second piece could be easily bent and installed in the center fuselage. It turned out that a sweeping “prebend” was necessary, along with removing one of the support brackets, but after one unsuccessful (crimped) attempt, the second one was good. Very tough confines to do the outboard flaring, but I think this will work. Enough for one night…
' style=

Tight confines for flaring

Tight confines for flaring

' style=

Left side fuselage entry point

Left side fuselage entry point

' style=

Ready for union

Ready for union

' style=










Copyright © 2001-2024 Matronics. All Rights Reserved.