Brief Description: Riveted right elevator to understructure
I completed the right elevator riveting today with just one difficult area. I followed the instructions and riveted the 703 and 704 ribs together, well you then rivet this assemble to the 702 spar. The shop heads on the 704 interfere with the rivet set, making the rivets difficult to set (even with single offset rivet set). The squeezer could not be used in this area so the rivets have to be bucked. They are the holes oriented forward and aft that attach the 704 rib to the 702 spar. I could not for the life of me set the rivets straight, after clenching over three rivets and drilling them out I called Van’s to see if I could use some type of blind rivets in this location. After talking with builder support I was chastised for even drilling out the first rivet. I was remained that even a bad rivet is strong. Builder support said to give it another try and to take what I got once the rivet was set, he said there is a lot holding this area together and not to worry.
Well I did as instructed and the rivets look like hell (photo) but I think they will hold up. Thankfully my drilling out of rivet skill is much better than my riveting skill and the holes were in good shape. My worry now is the inspector will have me replace them. If that is the case this will not be easy since the manufactured head (the side you would drill out) is on the inside, so unless I can drill them out from the shop head side and replace them with a blind rivet I will be looking at a whole new elevator. My guess is the most they might make me do is add a rivet in between the two I have set, this would have to be a structural blind rivet.
The rest of the riveting went smoothly; I even managed to set solid rivets in the most trailing edge holes. I used a flat plate (same plate used for dimple see it under “Builder Tips”) and a back rivet plate to flatten the rivets until I could get onto the rivet with the close quarter (no-hole) yoke. All that is left is the rolling to the leading edge and fiberglass tips.
