Fun Stuff: Number of rivets in wing, empennage, fuselage and finish plans.

I counted the rivets called out for in the finish plans and updated the chart on the lower right of the blog's main page.  Here is just the finish rivet count.  The break in the consecutive section numbering is probably due to the associated sections belonging to the FWF kit.

Number of Rivets in an RV-14A 

Finish kit only (see complete chart here)

38. Canopy and Window	650
39. Seatbacks	162
40. Tricycle Landing Gear and Engine Mnt	0
41. Wing Attachment	88
42. Miscellenea	60
45. Cowling	166
46A. Tricycle Gear Leg and Wheel Fairings	139

Empennage	4,446
Wings	8,276
Fuselage	6,250
Finish	1,265

Total: 20,237
The tail dragger would be very, very close to this number (in fact, same for wings).

I will update this list as my build progresses.  As always, it will live on the blog in the right column at the very bottom underneath the parts origin and skin thickness lists.  Direct link will be http://rv-14a.blogspot.com/#rivet_number

Want to wrap your brain around the mindlessness of the tasks involved in building a kit plane?  Consider that each of those rivets represents at least one hole (sometimes many more when parts are stacked) and each of those holes gets at least two deburring tasks and sometimes match/final drilling and/or countersinking/dimpling and/or sealant application too.  You can then calculate an upper-bound on the number of tasks per hole using some worst-case assumptions:  Just 6x the number of rivets to get a grasp on the number of tasks involved with the holes.