Well, this section took a LOOONG time!
The riveting of the top skins on the left wing began on 14 Jan 2021 and the last rivet on the right wing top skins was 30 Apr 2021. The delay was basically due to needing a riveting partner as i elected to backrivet all the skins.
Setup
I used the workbench extension for my wing spars and setup the wing spar to be level using a string line along the length of the spar flange holes, as well as a digital level to ensure that there was no twist in the spar. The wing skins were then clecod on.
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| Spar was clamped to the bench at one end.. |
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| and screwed through a tooling hole at the other end. |
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| A digital level was used to ensure there was no twist. |
I used a very large offset backrivet set and for all the rib to skin and spar to skin rivets, with the exception of those on the rear spar where there were doublers - this tool just didn't fit there. For those i used various bucking bars and the swivelling mushroom set.
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| Big Berfa! |
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| This massive set needed about 60psi to get a rivet set in 6-7 hits. |
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| The cardboard was there to protect the spar flange |
Some of the more difficult rivets required some bucking bar modification.
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| and a bit of high-ropes work. |
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| here the offset footed bar had to be ground to clear the manufactured heads of the rivets on the inner rear spar doubler |
A squeezer was used to install the rivets on the first rib, and the screw holes where the wing gap fairing will be located, was countersunk with a #21 initially until it bottomed out on the threads in the nutplates, then a #30, as the pilot of the #30 nests inside the threads of the nutplates nicely.
The offset nutplates are clecod on, then a screw inserted to hold them in place while the rivets are squeezed.
I get by with a little help from my friends
Since i was backriveting all the top skins, i could not have done it without some excellent bucking bar partners:
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| Dad on the bar |
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| John, my father in law |
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| Kingsley, looking pretty serious! |
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| My once chief pilot, Mark Rooke (trying to look serious). |
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| This bloke. |
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| Every good artist signs their work! |
Outboard Aileron Brackets
Closing out the section was the last task - to rivet on the outboard aileron brackets. These were done with the short cupped set and long offset set, and tungsten bucking bar.
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| Look mum - no clecos! |
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| Purdy |
The leading edges and fuel tanks have already been done, so the next step is to install them on the wings!
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