This time however I did rivet the Rear Spar almost in parallel with the Main Spar. Also I used the squeezer, that worked great with the short rivets (smaller than AN470AD3-7) the larger however failed several time.

I’m really pleased with the rivets on the Main Spar this time they were all great so I didn’t need to drill and reset any of them.

The Rear Spar was not so successful, At the inboard side, the thick doublers where harder to rivet with the squeezer. I had to drill and reset seven rivets and in the end I used the rivet gun and the bucking bar.

Here you can see the result of the rivets that I screwed up with the squeezer. Normally the result of the squeezer is better than the rivet gun, but with these thick doubler plates it didn’t work out.

Now both wings are done with the Ribs, next stop is fitting the skins.

Also this week I ordered the Roll Servo bracket, so I can install that in the right Wing, when the skins are still off and installation is easy. Actually installing the servo will be done later (I hope).

Time: 3 Hours, Rivets: 51/2 (2018-05-30)

Time: 3 Hours, Rivets: 69/5 (2018-06-03)

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I clecoed all the ribs to the main spar, however during riveting I found that the first three (wing walk) ribs on the inboard side should be added while riveting. The space between the ribs is too small for a rivet gun.

With the rear spar in place it starts to look like a piece of on airplane already.

Many holes on the rear spar should NOT be riveted right now. They are riveted in conjunction with the Flap brace and the Aileron gap fairing. I have no idea what these are, but I’m sure I’m going to figure that out in the coming weeks. For now I put cleco’s in these holes to prevent accidental riveting.

Since it has been a while for me when riveting (I try to use the squeezer whenever possible), I screwed up several rivets in the beginning. After a few rivets I regained my “feeling” for the task.

A nice look along the bottom of the left Wing. Again the conduit hole is lining up nicely.

I had to reset three rivets, because I was unhappy with those. They were probably ok (note to self: make photo’s), but since the rest was much better looking, I decided to drill them out and reset them.

The outboard four rivets are flush, because the Aileron hinge bracket is placed on top of them (according to the drawings).

Almost finished, I didn’t complete all rivets on the rear spar. However I stopped pushing for daily goals and started to just enjoy every day I can work on my plane. Sounds mushy, but I tend to make more screw-ups when I pressure for I specific goal, which cost even more time.

Time: 6 Hours, Rivets: 96/3

Time: 1 Hours, Rivets: 22/2

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This post combines the priming of the wing ribs and riveting the rear spar components together.

Here’s the result of the rear spar doubler plate in the middle. The strange shaped hole is actually correct and it should accommodate the movement of the aileron push rods.

This is the rear spar inboard side with several doubler plates. The holes that are not riveted are used for attaching the ribs.

Primeing the ribs I did without the help of my daughter. I only have one face mask and even if I had two I wouldn’t allow my little girl to enter the spray cabin. It smells too toxic to be careless with.

Time: 6 Hours, Rivets: 113/7

The center doubler plate requires drilling a hole for the Aileron push rod. And with hole I don’t mean round, it’s a strange blob of a hole.
After finishing the left Rear Spar I immediately continue with the right one.

And there is where a screwed up. The doubler plate doesn’t have any reference holes, so placing it at the same side as the Left wing is possible and WRONG.

This is the face of a confused man, realizing he just FUBARed a doubler plate. Fortunately it’s just the plate and not the Spar.
Turns out in the Trim bundle there is an Aluminum strip that has the exact width and thickness as the scrap doubler plate.

On the left the correct Left Rear Spar doubler plate. On the right the disaster and in the middle the home made doubler plate, which looks ok. The bend is less professional and has scratches, but it fits nicely.

The thick doubler plates at the fuselage side of the wing requires trimming for the RV-7. I don’t understand why Van’s can’t deliver a correctly trimmed doubler plate. Oh well, I use a paper stencil to check the correct angles.

We used the DRDT-2 for dimpling, however the flanges of the spar (and hence the doubler plates) are less than 90 degrees, which makes it hard (if not impossible) to use the DRDT-2. So let’s use the squeezer.

We also dimpled parts of the upper flange, because once the thick doubler plates are attached there is no way to dimple them anymore (not even with the squeezer).
Last thing is marking all the parts, while removing the blue vinyl, before priming.

These are all the parts of the Left and Right Rear Spar, including the Tie Down of the Main Spar (bottom center) and the Wing Access plates.

Ready for priming in the next session.

Time: 4 Hours, Rivets: 0/0

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Drilling the HS-411 is taking some toll on the #30 drill, so I decided to buy some HSS 1/8″ drills for the heavy duty work and keep my other drills for Aluminum.
Assembly was easy, however I will postpone the actual assembly, until I have enough material to be primed.

Spent most time today to the RV Training project, but in the afternoon we started with the real deal.

Time: 2 Hours

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