Well, with a full week at home this week to work on the airplane, of course it was Wednesday by the time I actually got out to the garage. Too many other things going on.
I was determined, however, to make some real progress, and I think I did okay.
I scoured around for my right tiedown and then pulled out the raw parts for the left side.
Here's the left tiedown stock and the two spacers that I cut while I was working on the right side.
Visit from the puppies (no, the toilet isn't hooked up...but how cool would that be?!).
After getting everything set and lining up the tiedown per the plans (oh man, I used to be so good at documenting these little steps), I started match-drilling.
The plans say to drill these to 3/16″, but I went ahead and drilled them to #12, which I think is a little bigger, but the AN3-_ bolts don’t fit in the 3/16″ holes, and they fit perfectly in the #12.
The bolt in the lower right hole is the one from the single (of 8) holes they tell you to drill in advance. You use a bolt to line up that hole and then picot the whole assembly around that point to 90° of the spar. Then matchdrill.
After all 8 holes are drilled to size…
Which one of these is not like the other?
Flipping the spar over, you can see I didn’t do to badly with the edge distances on the spacers.
It looks a little weird with the tape offset, but I did that to allow for the first bolt.
On the right tiedown, I drilled the lightening holes first. Here, I figured I’d do them in the other order.
Ready for lightening holes...just marking the center.
1-inch hole saw....looks pretty centered to me.
This time, I didn't use any lubrication, and it seemed to do a lot better. Hmm.
After countersinking the nutplate holes for the flush rivets.
And finally, to priming before assembly.
I think the is the second side.
I started putting everything back together and got the squeezer out.
(I like getting the squeezer out.)
The one on the right is the left tiedown.
8 beautiful rivets.
Andrew's RV-7 Build Log 