Got nearly all of the forward mid fuselage bulkheads riveted. Only needed to fashion a way to support the work so I can drive all the rivets solo with my even fancier new tungsten bucking bar (even better than my first one), a.k.a. "Mr. T.".
Left shows good shop heads all around. Right is the manner in which the bucking bar was used.
Aft center section bulkhead.
Bulkhead bottom channel.
Cover ribs ready to go.
For the forward center section bulkheads there are eight cover ribs. I wanted to place the manufactured heads on the ribs so I didn't end up with gaps as I did with the wing ribs (before I knew better) and I didn't want to use the evil offset rivet set. I found that as long as each hole is cleco'd (can use 5/32", #21 clecos for the bolt holes), the flange will sit flat when you deflect the rib to fit the rivet gun with a short straight set. Left is an example of the holes cleco'd (the uppermost #30 hole is cleco'd from the aft side since it cannot be placed on the forward side, so there's no need to cleco the bolt hole above until later when that uppermost #30 hole is bucked up). Right shows how much deflection the rib undergoes when placing the gun.
Because of the upper flange impeding access, I decided the only way to rivet the topmost hole was with the manufactured head on the aft side. I used one of my tungsten bucking bars, Mr. T, in the manner shown below to buck a nice straight shop head.
Here's what each what the rivets look like for the ribs on both sides.
The missing ribs, #3 and #5, are due to bag 3076 being on back order. That bag has the bearings for the bearing bracket assemblies which sits on the missing ribs. Once I get the bearings, I can complete and attach the bearing bracket assemblies to those two missing ribs and rivet them to the spar.
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