Wing Skin Riveting Assistance Request

Greetings, all.

I'm done with the fuel tanks and am ready to rivet the top wing skins and leading edge. We live in Seabrook?Clear Lake area between Houston and Galveston. Are there any experienced RV builders in the area interested in bucking a few hundred rivets in my shop? I have all the tools and I'll provide the beer and pizza.

If you're interested, want to make suggestions, or just want to say hello to a fellow RVer, drop me a message here, email deanmcole "at" gmail "dot" com, or text/call me at 713-497-4020.

Thanks for reading my post/plea.

You used the word "we", so it sounds like help might be close already?

My wife, who had never shot a rivet in her life, ran the rivet gun for my (our) fuselage floor stiffeners while I bucked. After 2 or 3 practice rivets, we got to work. And she did awesome!

Dean,

I did 90% of mine by myself. Its not easy that way, but it can be done. If you have long arms it will be easier, but I don't. I reached from the top or layed on my garage floor. It will take some time, but just keep plugging away. I limited the help to the rivets in the center area of the wing that were just too difficult for me to reach.

Wife

krw5927 said:

My wife, who had never shot a rivet in her life, ran the rivet gun for my (our) fuselage floor stiffeners while I bucked. After 2 or 3 practice rivets, we got to work. And she did awesome!

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2nd that. The best rivets in my wing were driven by my wife or friends. I held the bucking bar so my arms would be the ones with rib marks.

Nervous

I paid for my wife to attend Synergy's sheet metal class. Great experience. However, every time the rivet gun fired up she'd scream and jump. So, I'm nervous about the deleterious marital effect of potential jumpy-wife-induced smileys pockmarking my wings.

Due to other issues, it turns out I'll have to wait a couple of months before I do the skins. In the meantime, I'll work on the ailerons, flaps, and riveting the leading-edges onto the spar.

However, I'm still open to visitors/advisers.

My wife--who has absolutely no interest in building airplanes--helped me buck more than half the rivets in the wings. And she did a great job. She's a great little bucker! But she absolutely had to wear a set of hearing protection before we even fired up the air compressor. Do you and your wife both have a set of good, comfortable hearing protection?

I'm an hour and a half away, so that's going to be tough for me to come help as many times as you're going to need a riveting partner. But if all else fails, maybe we can figure something out.