Elevator skin tabs, E-701-L

Just finished bending the inboard elevator skin tabs on my RV8. They turned out good enough.

For the life of me, I can't find when and where to drill the holes for the pop rivets that hold the tabs together. The blocks are still clamped to the elevator skin/tabs, so this seems like a good time. The plans show two rivets, but no dimensions as to where they go precisely.

Is there any reason I can't just eyeball it and drill a couple of holes there now?

And are they dimpled?

Thanks in advance.

Drill the rivet holes while you still have the wood block in there to back them up. Pay close attention to edge distances. The prescribed rivets do not require dimples.

Rivets

I might be wrong but unless something has changed I think this location does use a flat head rivet in a dimpled hole. My drawing shows 3 rivets so maybe there has been a change in quantity. Not sure.

The plans call out MSP-42. Holding one in my hand, I guess it's round. The nomenclature on blind rivets is opaque to me.

longranger said:

Drill the rivet holes while you still have the wood block in there to back them up.

Click to expand...

But don't do this without the skin clecoed to the spar to set the correct height at the leading edge, or your holes will not align during final assembly.

rvbuilder2002 said:

But don't do this without the skin clecoed to the spar to set the correct height at the leading edge, or your holes will not align during final assembly.

Click to expand...

Excellent point, missing from my plan.

Thanks.

Rivets

StuBob said:

The plans call out MSP-42. Holding one in my hand, I guess it's round. The nomenclature on blind rivets is opaque to me.

Click to expand...

Sorry, I mistakenly thought you were working on the trim tab. Please disregard previous comments.