Side skin part 3
TLDR
- Continued to rivet side skin
- Installed the firewall mounting strips
Details
Side skin riveting
I installed all rivets on the bottom (between side skin and bottom skin), and also riveted connections between center and rear fuselage.
Right now the only remaining rivets are the ones near the side skin support ribs on the wing area. It turns out I am missing the rivets required in this part. I put in the order with TAF. I will rivet them together when I receive the rivets.
This part took surprisingly long. It was maybe 4-5 hours as many holes were so perfectly aligned, so I spent a lot of time adjusting. But in the end I only match drilled less than 5 holes. So I am pretty happy with the alignment and connection overall.
Firewall mounting strips
There are two of them.
The upper one is easier to install. I followed Evan’s video instruction and assembled the two ends with the upper mounting strip off the airplane, then put the whole thing on the fuselage. The rivets are a little tricky to access, but manageable with a hand riveter.
The lower one’s mounting block (the steel part) is fairly difficult to access. There are 2 rivets that sits very close to the mounting block flange. It would have been MUCH easier to put rivets on them if I didn’t close the side skin. But I don’t want to remove the side skin just for these 2 rivets, so I modified my hand riveter to gain access. I basically grinded down the riveter’s neck to be thinner. Then with some muscle power bending the flange, I was able to put the hand riveter around the rivets and pull them.
