Sunday, September 11, 2016

Hiatus...


Its been over two months since my last  update.  Other projects (aquaponics) need my attention.  The RV got ZERO attention during that hiatus.  The break ended 2 days ago...

With the tail cone assembled and clecoed, it was time to start riviting.  The first parts to be rivited are the J stiffners to the skin using 426-3-3.5 rivits.  Boy, I was really nervous riviting for the first time after 2 months on the final assembly of the tail cone.  YIKES!! Well, low and behold, the first 4-5 rivits were bent over.  I didn't fret about it since I expected it.  I also didn't fully rivit to not expand the holes.  After those initial bad rivits, all the others went in smoothly and perfect. 

I recruited the admiral to help buck the center portion of the foward tail cone floor.  I couldn't reach that area at all over the side skins.  We made a good team riviting the floor.  She bent over one rivit close to a bulkhead that she had a hard time squaring off the tungten bucking bar.  I drilled out the 5 or 6 rivets that were bad and reset those with a -4 rivet.  All rivets were check with the gauge and all were good.  Great confidense booster this was. 

Next, I need to rivet the bulkheads to the skins...  No pictures unfortunatley since I didn't want any distractions during the process due to the hiatus.  I'll take some shots next time out though.

Thanks for following...

Till next time...