27-04: Initial riveting of Firewall

After polishing, the riveting could begin in earnest on the firewall. It was a fairly simple process - i just put rivets in all the holes and held them in with backriveting tape. Then riveted each angle on, one at a time. I used my large backrivet plate for most of it, and where this would not fit due to the strengthening 'outies' on the firewall forward surface, i placed my small backrivet plate on top of the big one. 

For the shorter rivets i set them at 45psi and the longer -7 length rivets, i used almost 70psi. Some people have reported that the -7 rivets were too long, but i found no issues at all. Really happy with how the backriveting went - a beautiful, flat shiny surface. 

I will try and backrivet the rest of the firewall as well, once the sealant is applied. 

All polished up ready for riveting

The correct length rivets in each hole and taped in place. I did not put any rivets in the "do not rivet" holes.

In places like this rivet - i had the small backrivet plate pushed right up against the 'outie' and sitting on the large backrivet plate.

The centre diagonal piece was done first, then the bottom piece, with the outboard sides being done last. Then i added the doubler in the corner onto the longer rivets.

The longer -7 rivets are the location for the doubler.

Where my large plate would not fit without interfering with the strengthening 'outies' in the firewall, i placed my small plate on top of the large plate. 

Bottom piece riveted on. Just the doubler to go.

It came out so nice - days like this is why you build - so gratifying!

The aft side of right side of the firewall.

Riveting complete and laid out with the other parts of the firewall.

Even though it is not called our until a few pages on, i added the nutplates on these parts now since i was all setup to backrivet them anyway.

The long rivets needed some fairly high psi!

Next up is adding some sealant to the firewall and starting to rivet it together.