18 January 2015

Fuselage: Mid fuse lower structure. Seat ribs to skin.

First the rib and bulkheads frame is set up.


Then the skin is tacked on with clecos (left).  I used two baggage ribs to prevent the skin from flopping over.  Following four hours of help from a gracious friend, the seat ribs are on (right).


Next comes the baggage ribs.  Each one gets riveted to the bulkhead and/or adjoining seat ribs.  These AD4 rivets are difficult to reach.


For that, it was time to bring out my double offset rivet set.  This thing can be evil.  If it isn't restrained, it will rotate and wreak havoc on the manufactured head, endowing you with a rivet looking back at you with its big toothy smile.  So I secured it with some duct tape (does anyone actually use that stuff on ducts?). I managed to buck every rib-to-bulkhead rivet solo with judicious use of limb and rivet gun positioning.


In a few cases, I had to get creative to offer myself access to the rivets.


Now it awaits a bucking partner to rivet the baggage ribs to the skin.


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