Brief Description: Drill out rivets and build a Back-Riveting base
Earlier today, I called Van's and ordered a new right rudder skin. Despite the delay and extra cost, I'm certain I would have regretted not replacing it when I had the chance. After discussions with Van's, the plan was to drill out the rivets in the right skin to preserve the three used rudder stiffeners. While Mike S. did that job, I began work on the base shown below. The end result of our efforts is a sturdy platform for back-riveting. The design is simple: embed the metal plate flush in a 1" inch thick block of wood and provide visual clues (with the extended tape) to know where the metal plate is compared to your work. Prior to doing this, we tested the effects of back-riveting the .016 aluminum with this wood as the back plate in order to simulate the same problem from earlier where the rivet gun had no backing, but instead now backed by wood. The results were that the noise was different enough to alert you something is wrong, and the rivet was driven slightly into the wood. In each test, neither the skin nor the rivet was damaged. So, we now have a better "Mouse-Trap"!
