Brief Description: RIvet F-821-1 top forward skin-3
First thing this morning was to change out the silica gel in the dehydrator plugs. Three had changed to a nice pink color—indicative of the fine humidity here. I didn’t drive any rivets today, but I did install 12 Cherry Max rivets—also placed an order for more. The CR3214-4 rivets fit a #30 hole, but have a c/s head the size of a AN426AD3 rivet. They are a structurally approved substitute for AN rivets. After paint you can’t tell the difference—only drawback is that they cost over $1 each! I plan to use the Cherry rivets in the area over the gear towers and possibly back toward the instrument panel as well as the aft most rivet that goes inside the mid cabin bulkhead caps. I also plan to use maybe 4 on each side of the baggage bulkhead near the lower end. Access in the towers is almost impossible with fuel lines and wiring. I used some CR3214-4-4’s in the area over the towers and the bulkhead caps. I used some -3’s in the baggage bulkhead. To prep for the Cherries, I drilled the existing holes up to 1/8”, followed by a #30 reamer. Then I used my de-burr tool to deepen the dimple in the skin just a wee bit. I used some Gorilla tape with a hole in the center as a guard around the rivet hole, dipped the rivet in primer and installed the rivet. It takes a lot of force to break the stem on these rivets—usually when it breaks the rivet tool jumps—thus the guard around the hole.
Installing Cherry Max rivet
Gear tower area waiting on delivery of more Cherry rivets
