Well, after a very relaxing week-long vacation, I got back to work on the airplane.
I had previously prepped and primed three right leading edge ribs, so I figured this was a good time to get them permanently assembled.
Here’s a shot of the leading edge and the three ribs 50% clecoed.
Ready for riveting, sir.
The ammunition.
The rivet gun and bucking bar.
After setting half of them, I removed the clecos.
Not shown, I put rivets in the empty holes here, then shifted the tape over.
Guess who made an appearance when she heard the rivet gun.
IT'S GINGER!!!
I’m pretty sure when Jack heard the rivet gun, he headed underneath the bed.
After the top of the leading edge done for those three ribs, I flipped it over and did the bottom.
After all was said and done, I had 87 rivets set, none needed to be drilled out.
Here are some shop head shots.
Here's the fourth rib...
...fifth rib...
...and sixth (outboardmost) rib.
I just HAD to set it on the skeleton to see how it looked.
It was soooo light without all of those clecos.
Here's the top side...
...and the bottom side.
Then, I started pulling out the blue plastic. I only pulled out the sections where I didn’t need more riveting or where the leading edge landing light is going to go.
Pulling off plastic.
Shiny.
Sometimes, I worry that my careful devinyling lines are a little overboard, but then I see these primer edges, and it makes the extra time worth it.
Nice clean lines.
One hour today, and 87 perfect rivets.
(Honesty alert: I did have two small dings, both on the top surface. I hate it when I forget to start with the bottom, where no one will see any mistakes.)
Andrew's RV-7 Build Log 