For the last four evenings I’ve chipped away at setting the rivets on the aft fuse side skins. With only an hour or so each time, and some tricky rivets to access, progress has been slow. On the plus side, my technique seems to be improving. I did have to drill out a couple of rivets, but mostly it went well.
On Sunday evening I modified a long bucking bar so that it would fit around the tailwheel mount, and the bolts that secure it to the bulkhead. I cut this with a hacksaw and then polished on the grinding wheel, then wrapped it in electrical tape. It made bucking the rivets on the bottom aft side of the F-01411 bulkhead possible. In order to set the rivets, I turned the fuse on it’s side and carefully placed the bucking bar. I only had one rivet that I decided to replace, and that turned out to be a major pain. Unfortunately in the process of removing the rivet, I bent the flange up and away from the skin, just enough to be a problem. Without any way to hold the flange down, or bend it back, I ended up putting a BS319 pop rivet in the hole, and moved on. By cutting a piece of scrap wood into a series of weird shapes, I was able to hold the flange down and set the rivet. I need to check with Vans to see if a Cherrymax is required in that hole, in which case I will replace it.
