Today I riveted the right wing gap seals. This went quite well.
After clarifying with Vans their recommendation to use pop rivets for the flap gap seal, I started by cleaning the rear spar area, which is the “top” of the wing when sitting in the stand. A lot of dust, pollen, and shavings had gathered, so I took the time to blow it off with air then wipe it down with a damp cloth.
The I clecoed up the gap seals and started riveting. I squeezed all the rivets except those behind the already-installed bottom skin. For those I followed Van’s guidance and used Cherrymax and MSP-42 rivets. This was my first experience with Cherrymax, and I was surprised at how nicely they set. The countersunk rivet heads came. Out looking nice, and the squeezed manufactured heads looked good too. The only annoying thing was having the stems not breaking cleanly on a couple of the 42’s. I ended up filing them down which was time consuming.
