RV-7 #74023

[longranger]

...but plan on spending a LOT of time doing it! I'm over 8 hours into the bottom of the right wing and I'm only a bit over one quarter through it (by rivet count). Somewhat in my defense, I think I've got the hardest part done, the four inboard ribs. I think just having someone to move clecos and insert rivets would probably cut the time in half.

I started out in the cradle, riveting the first three ribs through the inboard end:


I then needed to lay the wing over a bit, so I put it back in the assembly fixture:


That orientation worked for about half of the 4th rib, then I had to lay it almost horizontal. I think this orientation will at least finish the inboard skin. Tip: If you don't have the tanks in place, leave them out until you've got the bottom skins riveted:


Another tip: FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS telling you to only rivet about half way down a rib before doing the rear spar in the next bay. I riveted the 4th rib all the way to the front spar, and ALMOST kinked the skin at the front spar while reaching the rear spar in the 4th bay.

[longranger]

I spent a week of afternoons and a weekend solo riveting the bottom inboard skin. Yesterday local RV-7 builder/flyer Hal Lyons come over and about 4 hours after setting up a makeshift bench we could access from all sides, we were more than half way through the bottom outboard skin. Today after I got home from work Hal came by for a couple of hours and we completed it.

My regular workbenches are too heavy and wide to move out to access from all sides, so Hal suggested using the wing skins box and a couple of sawhorses to ease access for riveting the bottom skins. (KCBerner, you aren't the only one who's miscounted UHaul moving pads after a move):


The wing makes a decent workbench as long as you're careful with the tools:


The right wing is structurally complete except for the flap hinge and tank joint plate nutplates. Those SHOULD be a walk in the park compared to the bottom skins.


One question: What is the hole on the inboard edge between the rear spar and flap hinge? I'm guessing it gets a nutplate for attaching the bottom fuselage skin. If so I guess now is as good a time as any to install it?

[longranger]

Today Karen and I riveted the left inboard bottom as far as we could go before moving the outboard skin so the overlap is on top. I had the outboard skin clecoed on to ensure the skeleton was being held square, and had it under the inboard one at the overlap so we could lift the end of the inboard skin for riveting access. Karen's getting the hang of riveting and ran the gun on close to half of these rivets! Look for a video of her running the gun on my FB page.

[longranger]

Yesterday, local RV-7 builder/flyer Hal Lyons and I finished up riveting the left wing outboard skin and the flap hinge. Both wings are now structurally complete! Hal, being the optimist he is showed up with his trailer, so when we were done with the wings we moved them to the hangar to free up space in the shop to start assembling the fuselage.


Hal taking a break after driving 300+ rivets in the left wing:


Loading up the trailer:


The future N904KM wings in the company of N3498C. :

[longranger]

After finishing in the shop today the build log hobbs stands at 1001.25 hours. I've been working a few days over 21 months, so I'm just under my 50 hours/month goal. I've assembled, drilled, disassembled, and begun deburring the aft fuselage.

Two days ago:


Yesterday. This is my least favorite part of building any assembly, not because disassembly seems like a step backwards, but because it's time for edge deburring :


Today, in addition to some devinyling, I deburred edges all the way around the tail cone bottom skin, both side skins, and down one side of the aft bottom skin:

[longranger]

I seem to have slowed down a bit. Up until September, I'd been averaging 47+ hours/month on the project for 21 months; and barely 40 total since then. Some time has been spent keeping my 170 airworthy, some getting involved in some local events, and some has been simply taking a break. Momentum seems to be a hard thing to re-establish...

Sunday, Karen and I drove the last rivets in the lower half of the aft fuselage:




I then got started on the center fuselage. After this photo, I cut the access slots out of these two ribs, and I'm seriously thinking of doing two more to ease access for installing the control column:




The instructions don't mention it, but I thought it would be a good idea to square the flanges of the seat ribs. I dusted off an old friend from wing building to do the job:




I also fluted the eight inboard seat ribs to straighten the rivet lines. I'll flute the outboard two ribs to fit the curvature of the side of the airplane after I clamp those ribs in place and mark the rivet hole locations.

BTW, I just remembered a little while ago that it was 36 years ago today that I first "slipped the surly bonds" on my own. The following familiar poem is the background on my solo certificate:


"Oh, I have slipped the surly bonds of earth,
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed and joined the tumbling mirth of sun-split clouds -
and done a hundred things You have not dreamed of -
wheeled and soared and swung high in the sunlit silence.
Hovering there I've chased the shouting wind along
and flung my eager craft through footless halls of air.
"Up, up the long delirious burning blue
I've topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace,
where never lark, or even eagle, flew;
and, while with silent, lifting mind I've trod
the high untrespassed sanctity of space,
put out my hand and touched the face of God."


John Gillespie Magee, Jr.

[wjb]

Hey Miles,

Truer words have never been spoken. Keep pounding 'dem rivets. Get up there where God hangs out. I'm almost done with my tanks. Leak test next weekend (and am praying to the same that there are no holes!)

I like the photo of your flange straightener .. I have the same beast, but with a shorter handle.

[longranger]

Originally Posted by wjb

I like the photo of your flange straightener .. I have the same beast, but with a shorter handle.

I was just too lazy to cut it off. That's just what I had left over from the 36" maple stick after I made the "anvil". Also, if I had a lathe, I'd turn down the end a bit to make it more comfortable to use.

[longranger]

Somewhere under the cockpit floor the 10,000th rivet installed in the project so far is helping hold the center fuselage bottom skin to a seat rib. You say counting rivets is anal? I say NO; knowing exactly which one it is would be anal...

I'm the "headless" bucker, and RV-7 builder/flyer Hal Lyons is running the gun:


The bottom skin took less than two hours with two people:

[longranger]

Today I put the shallow bend in the longerons using the "Orndorff" method of clamping the two longerons back to back and bending both at the same time. Two advantages of this method seem to be that both longerons get bent identically, and there is no propensity to twist while bending.

The actual bending was quite a bit more difficult for me that it is for George in his video. I'm not quite tall enough to really get my weight on the longerons while they're in the vise, so I tried standing on Karen's aerobics step, which helped, but I still had trouble getting enough weight on both sides to effect much of a bend. I tried clamping the longerons to the vice aft of where I was trying to bend, but it got tedious unclamping and reclamping when checking the bend. The best method was to have Karen lean on the longerons aft of the vice while I pushed with both hands on the forward end. After about a dozen iterations we got the bend to match the curve on drawing 17 within the width of the line.