Brief Description: Final riveting & fuselage covers
Today was the day for finishing up the last little bit of riveting left on the fuselage. Ross had once again agreed to stop by the hangar and help out, so I did a couple of things to get ready for riveting. First I dropped the transponder rack to gain access to the final nine rivets on the center of the forward fuselage, and then I drilled out two bad rivets that had been set the previous session. Had I known that all it would take to gain access was removing four screws holding the transponder rack in place, I would have done it that day…but then again, I think I recall being really done with riveting that morning.
Once Ross arrived, it only took about 20 minutes to shoot the rivets, but it was still a pain…literally. The only way to reach that area is to lie on my side on the spar while simultaneously extending my arm as far as I can up into the top of the fuselage. Trying to hold a bucking bar in place with no visual is one of the biggest challenges, so I had preselected the bucking bar that I wanted to use and put duct tape on the side so that I could just hold it in place against the rib.
After that job was finished I went back and did some riveting odds and ends, finishing up the center fuselage covers and then riveting the two ribs that support the forward part of the aft fuselage. I think that aside from a couple of rivets here and there, I’m pretty much ready to retire the rivet gun for this project…seems weird after all of these years. It’s served me well.
