Riveted corner bracket deals on top
 

So, final drilled a lot of holes...just scanning the fuse to figure out what I have skipped over as I have to jump around a bit.
I thought I posted this yesterday but don't see it so maybe I messed it up.

I choose to buck these by hand as I seem to have more control over it than the squeezer, at least in this case. Cut custom length rivets, the -6's were just a hair short. You can see some of them on the close-up of the right-hand side. All things considered, they came out acceptable.

I went a little out of sequence again, but it worked.
I have the rudder pedals here and am going to use the new framework and the old pedals themselves. They look fine and I am going to cerakote them with some graphite black I have left over from my previous business. Stuff is super bomber and oven cured.





I have one set of new brake cylinders and will use them on the pilot side and one set of the used cylinders on the passenger side.



Finishing up the floor stiffeners for the forward bottom skin. The holes on one of the stiffeners were a little north of the line but all the others came out perfect. I think it was the bend at the end o one of the stiffeners that threw it off. I tried to get it "more" square and that is the result...

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So I was up at Twin Oaks(7S3) today for a flight maneuvers lesson and afterward talked to my buddy in maintenance and he said that there is an AD or SB for the rudder frame. Good thing I am changing mine for the new ones as the old ones did not have the small welded gussets on the down tubes that are in the AD! Sweet!

Rudder pedals and framework installed:










That is all....

I couldn't find an AD or SB for the rudder bars for an RV-7x.

Maybe it was just an internal deal? Not sure other than the new ones have the gussets and the older ones do not. Thanks for posting and checking for us!

It's probably like the steps they made an improvement but it's not a mandatory change. Mine don't have that little reinforcement piece.

Because it was issued in 1999 for the RV-6 (before the RV-7 existed).
All rudder assys shipped in RV-7 kits should have had the upgrade.

Well, there you have it!

Thanks, Scott!

Well I guess I'll need to look again . I don't remember seeing them. My fuse kit is a year and a half old.

Forward bottom skin
 

Not much to show, been studying for my check ride...here are a couple shots for those following along.

Firewall bracket bucked!
 

This is me eating a fritter watching people run a marathon for the Rose Festival

Side skin workj
 

Starting work on the left side skin. Time to do that curly bend on belly tab deal.

side skin belly bend
 

For a split second, I thought I bent it the wrong way!









I don't have time tonight to check fit, hope it fits!

close up bend point
 

Here is how the bend point came out. I need to add some more bend to the flange that goes under but other than that I think I am good. Not perfect, but acceptable.

No cracking in the corner; good! Build on; the gap will be easily fillable with a bit of micro and some sanding. This is a challenging part of the build ... but yours is good to go!

Thanks for the reply! If nothing else I can put some sealant on the inside and keep the water out. I have about fifty million dents in this thing from cartage, so I am not sure how many I will fill, might add fifty pounds to the empty weight! LOL HA HA

right skin mostly done
 

Not sure how to fix this gaposis on the bottom skin to side skin intersection...maybe one of those seamer edge roller deals

left side skin deburred and dimpled
 

Here is the skin minus some primer in the bulkhead contact areas in need to do. I didn't have my readers on so I guess they came out a bit fuzzy...darn.

So Photobucket wants $400 a year to host, so no older photos on this thread...

https://goo.gl/photos/PgSbrtM3zGN4ZcYa9

So is this the best I can do for picture hosting for less than $400 a year?

Kentlik I have had good luck with Flickr lately. Unfortunately it won't help with the older photos unless you redo them all. :(

Thanks for the tip! My son said I would have to replace each and every pic so going to leave them as dead links and move forward with Flickr I guess..."Imgur" was one my son just told me about

Photobucket
 

I'm on the free plan. Do they still offer that?

Free plan with Photobucket or Flickr?

Upon further examination of the website, Photobucket, you can host pictures for as low as
$6.00 a month. That is reasonable. They sent me the link for the $400 deal as if it were my only choice. After a few post on the thread, I figured there must be a better deal.

Got some riveting done finally! Had to pay my son to get him off the computer to do it. He is reasonably priced













Not much, but a step in the right direction...

Just about done with the left side and just short of a few rivets...I feel like once I get the firewall set and the forward bottom on I can flip it over and start making real head way.

Had some real trials with this stage...lots of tweaking to get her neat and tidy. I had inexplicably forgotten to dimple about a dozen #4 holes! Realized this after the skin was firmly installed on the fuse...:( :(
Had to use some pretty creative processes to get them half good...

You can see the string of #4's on the angle moving toward the firewall are pretty fuglly. Lesson learned.

I have a few update pics. Had a vacation and came back, flew a few times on my new Private pilot ticket, awesome and trying to get this bad boy put together correctly. Takes a bit more time when you have to make careful extraction then installation of rivets. Some have gone up to -4's. Not many and the one side skin I saved fit really well at the firewall, almost perfect! Had to add multiple clamps to get it held firm for riveting.

So, I finally got my son Reid to get back in the garage to rivet.
He is not into it...so I have to pay him a little to get him out there. I think he is a bit intimidated at times more than lazy.
See pictures of the progress...




















See if this works to show pics

No go on them there pics good buddy. Dang photo hosting sites

huh....I can see them. What, if anything do you see Jeremy? Thanks for letting me know!

Flipped her over
 

So, had a few family members hanging out to watch a game and enlisted them to help me flip the plane over. Went pretty good, although it was a bit unwieldy. Now I can take inventory of the next few steps I can do.

I got started on installing the steps and found the rivet pattern and the initial fit was for ****e. I cresent wrenched the step flange and it was really easy to manipulate. No sure what to do with the rivet holes from PO, might weld up the holes and start from scratch. These steps are going to make movement around the fuse a bear in my confined space...

Hopefully your aware that all your photos from post #107 and earlier are not showing up and many of your photos after post #107 are missing.

Very interesting build otherwise.

Thank you I did not know about after 107 they were missing

Ok. So I have to figure out why I can see these pics and you cannot...
Google photos was working most of the time...

OK, I fixed post #107 images but I am not going to pay the $400 to Photobucket to host the previous images. If I get a huge amount of free time to sit and rehost I may, but that "free" time is very unlikely,,,

Kent sorry for the delayed response, your pics are good to go now. Usually when the pics don't show up on our end it is a circle with a dash in it if I remember right. Glad to see your still building strong!

Tinypic still works well for posting pictures