Well, I needed a break from all of that rib preparation, so I took the seven ribs I had done for the inboard half of the right wing and got started riveting them to the main rib (Most people start with the main rib, because you can bend the ribs a little out of the way of the rivet gun while you shoot and buck.)
Here are the first two rivets in place, ready for shooting.
Per the general builder consensus, you should start with the 3rd rib. (3rd, 2nd, and 1st rib flanges all point inboard, so having the 2nd and 1st in the way would not be fun. If you start with the third, you can easily reach the forward flange.)
The right spar here is upside down.
After the first five rivets…
(That mark above the 2nd from the top is a tape mark.)
Whoa, that bottom rivet head doesn't look to good.
Let’s get a little closer…
Crap. This was the first one, too. Bummer.
After drilling out and re-setting, the rivet is now great. (I scratched the primer off the flange a little. I'll clean that up with a scotchbrite and re-shoot it with primer.)
Of course, it wasn’t until the second rib that I remembered my tape trick to keep from marring the manufactured heads too much.
This works great to keep everything looking nice.
See, this head looks a lot cleaner after shooting.
Here's two done.
Shop heads...
Three ribs down.
More shop heads.
Then, I did the 4th, 6th, then 5th, and finally, the 7th.
The first 7 ribs attached to the right main spar.
1.0 very fun and rewarding hour. It’s nice to see something big take shape for the last time in the garage.
5 rivets times 7 ribs equals 35 rivets, two of which were drilled out and replaced. (The first rivet, and the last rivet. Boo.)
Now, back to rib prep.
Andrew's RV-7 Build Log 