Finished riveting skins and prepped structure: 8.6 hours

Pulled a fairly long work session today to reach my 60 hour per month goal.

I was able to get the other set of stiffeners back riveted on to the skin. I also temporarily assembled the rudder and match drilled all rivet holes. I then spent some time trimming and fitting the rudder brace and making some attachment strips to attach fiberglas pieces later in the build.

After all that I disassembled the rudder and started deburring all the rivet holes. I have several more hours of this then I will be dimpling the holes so they will be ready to rivet.

Rudder spars, ribs, brace and counterbalance skin (blue).

 

Tip ribs with counter balance skin.

 

Right skin temporarily attached for drilling.

 

Almost all the pieces.

 

Fitting the attachment strips (rudder brace on left).

 

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Another nice paint scheme and interior

Some more Interesting ideas:

 

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Prep rudder skins and started riveting: 3.6 hours

I got both rudder skins dimpled and primed then started back riveting the stiffeners on. I was able to get all the stiffeners done on the right skin then we headed to the lake!

Dimpling the skin.

 

The back riveting technique is an easy way to get high quality flush rivets quickly. The down side is that you have to be able to access the back side of the piece with the rivet gun. Back riveting is used on the rudder and elevators and I also plan on using it on the top wing skins.

To back rivet you use a special rivet set and put the gun on the tail of the rivet. Riveters tape holds the rivets in place until riveted. Underneath the work piece I have a large, heavy steel back rivet plate that the front or flush side of the rivet and work piece rests on.

 

Back rivet plate and riveters tape, ready to flip the skin over and rivet.

 

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Prep work on rudder stiffeners and skin: 6.3 hours

Finished trimming all 16 rudder stiffeners. I used the scotch brite wheel to do the final shaping and smooth all edges on the stiffeners. Following this I checked the fit of the stiffeners to make sure they had proper spacing with the other rudder parts.

 

Right skin, stiffeners, spar and trailing edge.

 

After this I match drilled the stiffeners with the skins and then deburred all the holes.

 

Match drilling complete.

 

I also got all the stiffeners dimpled then scuffed, cleaned and primed them.

 

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Started on rudder: 2.5 hours

Starting trimming the stiffeners for the right rudder skin. The rudder is more complicated and has a few new techniques involved so it will be interesting to build.

Each stiffener is cut from a pre-marked angle and has to be shaped and smoothed.

 

I also got my new air hose reel installed:

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Interesting paint jobs

I have started making an effort to save good looking paint schemes. Paint is a long way off but it's fun to think about.

Mine will also have the 12" "N" numbers required for international travel.

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Finished vertical stabilizer!: 6.2 hours

Finished the riveting the vertical stabilizer. Everything went quickly. Only one rivet had to be redone.

Starting on the rudder next.

 

Rear spar ready to be riveted.

 

Turned out good!

 

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Attached skin and started riveting: 1.3 hours

Made some good progress during a short work session. After attaching the skin to the front spar and ribs I was able to drive about a quarter of the rivets for the assembly.

I'm definitely picking up speed and confidence with the riveting.

 

Temporarily attaching the skin...

 

 

Primed skin and started riveting: 4 hours

Cleaned and primed the skin for the vertical stabilizer. Riveted front and rear spar assemblies.

Rear spar assembly in progress

 

Front and rear assemblies

 

 

 

More vertical stabilizer parts prep: 4.5 hours

Got all of the skeleton pieces countersinked, dimpled, cleaned and primed. Also got the skin deburred and dimpled.

No photos today.

The fun begins tomorrow when I can start riveting things together after priming the skin.

Worked on vertical stabilizer skeleton parts: 4 hours

Finished all the edges and deburred all rivet holes in the ribs, stiffener and spars.

This process went faster than the horizontal stabilizer but still not much fun. However having to do all the part finishing yourself is a big reason why the kit is reasonably priced.

Ready to be dimpled, (also a few countersinks) and primed.

 

Prepped vertical stabilizer: 2.8 hours

Match drilled structure then attached skin and match drilled. Very similar to the horizontal stabilizer but easier.

Going together quick...

 

 

 

Started on vertical stabilizer: 1.5 hours

It looks like the vertical stabilizer will go together quick. I got the skeleton cleco'd together after fluting and finishing the four rib pieces.

Rear spar and stiffener

 

Less complicated than the horizontal stabilizer

 

Horizontal stabilizer storage in basement

 

Finished horizontal stabilizer!: 7.5 hours

Used the squeezer for all but 4 rivets. Only had to replace one rivet on this entire section. The whole process went quickly. It's too bad you can't use the squeezer everywhere.

After everything was riveted together I went over the whole stabilizer and smoothed out a few nicks from the riveting process. I also lightly scuffed the whole surface with a fine scotchbrite pad.

The stabilizer looks great and is ready to be stored until its needed later in the build.

First major sub assembly complete!

 

 

 

Riveted right skin to forward spar and attached rear spar: 7.3 hours

The right side went a lot quicker than the left. I didn't have any bad rivets on this section

After I got the rear spar temporarily attached I did some practice riveting with the pneumatic squeezer. It went well so I ended up doing some riveting on the rear spar. The squeezer is much easier and faster than the rivet gun!

Horizontal stabilizer ready to be riveted

Tight spaces

Ready for final riveting

This shows some of the structure that let's the RV-7 sustain +6/-3 g's (stronger than light planes, business jets, or airliners)