Rudder sheer plate LP4-3 gap issues

Rudder shear clip LP4-3 gap issues

My wife and I joined the two rudder halves last night, and in the heat of battle on the clock with the ProSeal curing, I had an issue with some small gaps between the shear clips and the stiffeners after setting the LP4-3 blind rivets. I wasn’t expecting “pop” rivets to be difficult at all, and thought I was holding everything nice and tight as I squeezed the riveting tool. I don’t believe the gap is due to the rivet expanding between the two parts, but more to the parts deforming a little and flaring away from each other. FWIW, It only seems to be an issue between the shear clips and the stiffeners, and not the rivet that joins the stiffeners to each other.

My first question is how to avoid this in the future. Was there a trick to using setting the LP4-3s that I didn’t know?

The second question is whether I should try to replace the affected rivets. I realize it’s difficult to answer without seeing a picture, and I don’t have one right now. But in general, is a small gap like I described going to be a problem? Should I leave it, or try to remove and replace the rivets (which is probably possible, but will be a struggle now that the halves are joined a ProSeal will be cured)?

Thanks!

I would drill them out and rivet again. I had to do this on one or two of these same rivets when I built mine. A right angle drill works well for this. As for holding them together, you can use one cleco in the unriveted hole, and a cleco clamp (or something similar) near the one you're working on, although it does take some thought as to how to position everything to allow clearance for the puller.