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[November 27, 2007]


With everything painted, it was time to start putting stuff together. First I riveted the side angle to the seatbacks. I didn't do this before I painted because I worried about the ghosting of the paint between the angle and the corrugations on the seatback skin.


Next was the gussets that attach the lower longeron to the F-704 forward bulkhead. These get 5 AN3 bolts.


SNAP! I heard something in the garage that made me jump. I have been fighting a slight infestation in the garage of field mice. My garage door has a slight bow to it that causes it not to sit flat against the ground for the entire length. Well, these little devils started coming into the crack and setting up home for the winter. My first attempt to catch them resulted in a mousetrap with no cheese left in it! Arg! However, tonight I got one of them and blocked off one of their nests they made in the garage wall. It's on suckers!!!!


Anyways, back to the project -- The next thing I worked on was the angle that goes on the F-7101 plate that attaches to the forward seat covers. You have to rivet this angle to the F-7101, but you don't have any room because 1/8" behind it is the outer skin. Van's calls for LP4-3 pop rivets, but they are just WAY too long. Instead, I substituted MDP-42 pop rivets which are short (and stronger). To make them even shorter, I ground down the puller nail as depicted in the bottom pop rivet in the pic (the top one is original).


I also needed to grind down the bottom of the barrel of the pop riveting gun. Similar trick as when it needed to be ground down for the fuel tank Z-brackets.


and here is the finished product. All of the rivets set nicely except for one on each angle protruded a little. Nothing I can do about that, besides, this thing is on SOLID!

IF I HAD TO DO THIS ALL OVER AGAIN, I WOULD NOT OF RIVETED THE F-7101 WHILE THE FUSE WAS FLIPPED. I WOULD OF WAITING UNTIL THIS WAS DRILLED AND RIVETED IT WITH AN470AD4-4'S OR WHATEVER. IF YOU ARE READING AHEAD AND HAVEN'T FLIPPED THE FUSE YET, CONSIDER IT!


I am trying to do everything in the backlog before moving on. I devinyled and deburred the remaining of these aft top skins. Tomorrow I will break out the dimpler and have at it.


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Last Modified: August 13, 2023