Bummer, now I need an additional prime session. Oh well, it turned out I missed some spots anyway.

Before riveting the side skin to the fuselage there are some specific parts you need to check. Mainly on the firewall, because the side skin is so close to the vertical stiffener, there is no way you can rivet anything to it once the side skin is attached. Also blind rivets (sometimes called pop rivets) are not strong enough here.

With a huge amount of parts primed, the amount of dimpling is equally extreme. Not only the skins, but also all the parts.

Besides dimpling, also attaching the nutplates needs to be done after priming.

After getting over the aggravation of the missed baggage side panels, I figured out they also need trimming (considerably I might add).

Those gussets side rivets will be completely unreachable after the skin is riveted, so now is the time to do it. Actually the manual holds a brief list of all the tasks that MUST be done before riveting the side skin.

The only task on that list I couldn’t figure out was riveting the longeron for the rudder pedals. It must be riveted on the firewall before the skin, but with what angle?
I’ll make a note NOT to forget it just before riveting the skin (what could possibly go wrong).

The plans don’t mention the brake pads, but I figure they can safely be riveted.

Time: 5 Hours, Rivets: 98/1

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Here I work on the Tank Attach Angle of the Right wing Tank on the most inboard rib. The build plans don’t say much more than “create tank attach angle”. The drawing (DWG16A) does not show much more than a 1/2 scale sketch.

Again, I work in parallel, so after finishing the right one I started on the Left Wing. The “mirroring practice is getting better and better. I tend to screw up less.

Here are the results of both Tank Attach Angles. I’m really satisfied with the result, considering the thickness of the material.

Here’s a view of the part that will probably go into the fuselage (assumption, I didn’t receive the fuselage plans and drawings yet.

After using the cleco’s extensively for several times I spray WD-40 on them when I tidy up.

To match-drill the Tank ribs I cleco the wing to check if all parts fit.

The three platenuts in the main spar that attach the most inboard angle need to be riveted at this point. To me that looks sub-optimal, since there is less room. If I’d known this I would have done this during initial tank attach platenuts. The plans indicate to do it here, because you need to drill it with the holes in the main spar as guide. So I get that, but I would still install the platenuts earlier and drill the holes “through” the platenuts with a smaller drill and a small pipe. This way you protect the platenut and you can enlarge the holes later.

All the rivets I had to reset where related to these platenuts. Every time when I use the rivet gun (instead of the squeezer), I tend to forget to hold the bucking bar correctly.

Time: 3 Hours, Rivets: 0/0 (2018-08-15)

Time: 4 Hours, Rivets: 12/5 (2018-08-19)

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