Last night I decided to build a small table to support a back riveting plate, so I could try to back-rivet the #30 rivets holding the seatbelt lugs to the top skin. I found some scrap plywood and 2×4, and with some trial and error made a little table.
Tonight I tried it out, and was able to quickly and easily backrivet both lugs… except for the inner-most rivets on each side. They are too close to the bulkhead, and with the skin angles, I couldn’t get my backrivet set onto the rivet head. So I decided to buck those with the gun and bar, and it went fine. The problem is, I damaged the next rivet over in the process. These rivets are all close together, and I just wasn’t thinking. I ended up repeating the mistake on the other side before realizing what I had done. So, now I am going to remove one of the rivets on each side and redo them. It sucks trying to remove these fully-installed rivets, because it’s hard to get a grip on the now mangled shop heads.
I’m going to call it quits for tonight and try to get these tomorrow.
1 out of 10 for the table Neal I guess the lean is on purpose
At least it’s only two rivets that you have to replace
Haha! Yes, it’s not pretty. It did get the job done though, a good return on time invested!