Saturday, August 20, 2016

Section: 29
Hours: 7

I made good progress on the fuselage today. I installed the forward bulkheads/stiffeners, the center section stiffener, the arm rest and the flap block bracket. Again, I did a lot of back riveting but there were some pull rivets and other types- a variety.


You bend the center section stiffener by lining up the relief cuts on the edge of the bench and then apply gentile force with your hands to form the slight crease.

Pull rivets are used since you can't reach the inside of the stiffener. It was difficult getting the pull rivet puller on the top rivet- not much clearance available. I found it helped to first insert the rivet and then slide the pull tool onto the rivet tail for this one.

The rear section of the arm rest is too wide for the back rivet set to reach so I used the mushroom set on the outside and a bucking bar for those. I was able to back rivet the forward section. In looking at the finished rivets, I don't think there is much difference in the finish provided by either method.

I had to slightly enlarge the top and bottom notches in the F-01402 side frames to get them to fit. Also, my kit came with 2 left frames- I called Vans and they shipped out a right frame and I got it within a couple days- great service!

I finished up today installing the flap block brackets. Before I installed the brackets I had to install the 6 small AN470AD3-3 round head rivets around the square opening. It hadn't been clear when those were supposed to be installed, but it became obvious I would not be able to rivet them once the bracket was installed.

I now put a piece of rivet tape over each round head rivet to protect the manufactured head while riveting.

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