I was waiting for some more nut plates which came in over vacation. I set the remaining two nut plates for the left console but I am not happy with them. The skin and angle of the longeron prevent the use of a squeezer and I can’t get any of my rivet sets to get on the rivet well, they end up rising up just above flush. I think the counter sinks are not great; there was no way to use a counter sink cage so I had to free hand the counter sinks. On the flap block the instructions suggest grinding down a vise grip to use as a squeezer for hard to reach areas. I think I will try that. I was going to use some blind rivets that I have that are stainless and 3/32 but they are not long enough, when I try to set them they set very loose. At this point I am not sure what I will do. The nut plates are secure but the rivet just look like crap. A buddy is coming in a few days and I will ask him what he thinks. I actually think a good way to hold the nut plates in this area might be JB weld putt, I could work the stuff into the counter sink and make it flush. Once set it would hole the nut plate quite well. I think the only issues would be how to drill it out if that ever needed to be done and what corrosion interactions there might be between the aluminum and the JB weld.
