Moving onto the top skins involved deburring the top left and right side skins, the top middle skin, and the reinforcement doublers and ribs which attach to the top middle skin. The skins were test fitted to the fuselage, to check that they all sat down nicely and that i had broken the edge skins enough so the skins lay flat.
Once i was happy with the fit, all top skin components were primed.
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| Left: Scuffed, Etched and Dried. Right: Primer drying. |
Top middle skin
After priming all top skins were dimpled. The top middle skin ribs and doublers were attached by backriveting them on my worktable with the large backrivet set. You will notice that i have installed the nutplate used to hold on the aft tail fairing - i elected to do this now, as i figure it was a lot easier than doing in-situ. This will mean later i will need to blind drill the fairing with the nutplate in position, but i think this should be doable. Worst case - i drill out the nutplate attach rivets.
Riveting the top side skins
Once the top skin was done, the side skins were dimpled and test fitted again. Happy, the right hand side was removed and riveting began. I was able to complete all these skins solo, with a mushroom set on the outside and the bar on the inside. I did the line of rivets along the 'c channel' longeron, then worked my way up each bulkhead to the centre, using plastic tube on any rivets where the flange was sitting up. I was happy with how all the flanges sat tight against the skin. I ended up rolling the fuse quite a bit in order to reach some of the upper rivets.
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| Skins test fit one final time before riveting. |
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| I rolled the fuse on it's side in order to reach some of the rivets a little easier... |
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| For the middle bay rivets i was able to just fit my arm in between the skins... |
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| I used timber shims to ensure the bar stayed as perpendicular to the rivet as i could. |
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| Working solo on the skin to bulkhead rivets. |
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| The side skins are done. |
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| The side skins are done. |
The Last Aft Fuse Skin (Top Middle)
For the top middle skin, the isntructions call to begin at the forward (wider) section and work aft. I was able to set maybe 15 rivets in at the front, before i ran out of reach. I used the backrivet set on the tails of the rivets on the inside, and the flat backrivet bar my dad made for me on the outside. Once i could reach no further, I cleaned the carpet very carefully and placed the assembly on the floor. I then filled as many gaps as i could with foam mats - so i could spread the load of my body evenly. What ended up working the best, was to use a little pile of long 2x4" timber to support one end of a long board on the floor, with the other end being supported by the foam inside the fuse. I then climbed in, and we backriveted the top skin on.
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| This was the initial setup, however it is not recommended. Any side loading was trying to buckle the lower forward bulkhead. |
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| What worked a lot better, was some long 2x4" on the floor, supporting one end of a board. The end inside the fuse was supported by the foam which spread the load onto the lower skins and the carpet. |
It looked comfortable, but wasn't really! The gun gets heavy around the 100 rivet mark:
And finally the aft fuse is completed!
For storage of the aft fuse, a friend gave me a bunch of screw type clecos to hold the assembly together at the front end (where rivets joining it to the forward fuse will go in a few years time).
A big section:
Here are some stats on the Aft Fuse sercion (Chapter 10):
Rivets Shot: 1700 Rivets
Hours Completed: 91.5 Hours
Days from Start to Finish: 202! (6 Months & 18 Days).
Work Rate: 0.45 hours per day (need to pull my socks up).
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