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RV-7A Construction Log
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Date:  2-13-2009
Number of Hours:  2.00
Manual Reference:  
Brief Description:  Main Skins - Clinched Rivets Issue 2

Alright, I decided to drill out all the clinched rivets and redo them.

I used a #42 size drill bit which is two sizes smaller than the original hole. This allows me to drill the mfg head, snap it off, and knock out the shaft. Some of the shafts were tight and so I'd drill a little in the hole after snapping of the head. But with the head off, I was very centered and did not enlarge the holes. Maybe they enlarged a little, and so I made some fatter rivets. More on that later. My brother helped and we drilled out 260 rivets (130 in each wing), and not one oops rivet was needed. There were no issues. Once you get in a roll for drilling and snapping off the heads, this work can go pretty quick. It took 2 hours per wing to drill and re-rivet. You can see on the two drill out rivet shop heads below a clinched foot and a good foot. Notice how nice and round the good one is compared to the clinched rivet.

I'm glad we spent the time redoing this.

I recommend you don't back rivet this row. Turn the wing over and forward rivet them using the flush set and bucking bar.
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Drilling out the rivets with #42 bit

Drilling out the rivets with #42 bit

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Bad shop heads

Bad shop heads

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Good head on left bad on right.

Good head on left bad on right.

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