Two great things happened today. I had sent pictures of my concerns to Cory, an amazing mechanic. (Who also happens to be one of my former students and Cormac's son.) Cory sent back a GREAT email that made me feel much better.
The second wonderful bit of news was when Ken (the A & P I tried to get in touch with yesterday) called and asked if he could stop by. He looked SUPER close at the rivets and had some fabulous words of wisdom. He marked about 25 more rivets for me to replace. He was super positive about the work so far.
It amazes me what a few words of encouragement can do! I am fired up again about the project. (My enthusiasm was starting to subside.)
Things I learned - Measure the squeezed end with a same diameter rivet. The squeezed part should be 1/2 the thickness of the rivet you are holding. (95% of my rivets were just fine. If anything, I need to squeeze them a bit more. - Squeeze any rivet you can. I have a hydrolic squeezer... I should use it more. - I learned what an eyebrow was. (I had seen smileys on my rivets but learned to spot eyebrows.) - Ken helped me perfect my rivet drilling out. - Hand squeezing is better that hammering away with a rivet gun. - To line up a round headed rivet, check the spacing around the rivet set. - When you drill out a rivet, if you make the hole a bit larger, just use a longer rivet. It will squeeze to fill the hole.
