[N208ET]

I am in the process of riveting the F-893 forward ribs to the F-894 bottom skin on a 8A. Man that is a tight area, anybody have a tip for the hard to reach area in the back. All I can figure is to lift the skin up and slide the bucking bar in there and give it my best shot. Anybody have to use blind rivets in the very back? Should be a blast having to work around gueewy rtv too.

 

[robertahegy]

We attached the inboard edge with clecoes and carefully rolled the skin back. Then unrolled as we worked our way outboard. It is tough and hard to reach in places. This is definetely an area for two people to work together. Make sure you don't miss any or you'll need to pop rivet. We managed to get all the rivets in using AN rivets.

Roberta

 

[Steve Ashby]

The plans call for pull rivets

I am at the exact same place in construction on my 8A. My drawings call for pull rivets on those rear ribs. I mocked up everything with clecoes previously with the thought of using driven rivets and it is impossible if you use the sequence called for in the plans. The top flanges on the ribs (the ones that attach to the floor skin) are all pointed towards the inside, making it impossible to roll back the skin from the sides to buck those rivets. While it might be possible to rivet the ribs to the floor first and then rivet the belly skin on last, that is not the sequence called out in the plans. I am half way through this process. First, as per the plans, I riveted the ribs and the crosspiece (the F802UPP) to the belly skin, using proseal at the joints. Next, I prosealed the whole structure to the floor skin, using clecoes at every hole. After two days, I will remove the clecoes and rivet the crosspiece and the ribs to the floor. The crosspiece can be hard riveted because you can reach in to buck those rivets. The ribs will have to be affixed with pull rivets. That is how it is working for me. Your mileage may vary. Feel free to call if you want to discuss this further. As I said, I am right there in construction. 404-310-5128

 

[N208ET]

Got it

I managed to drive rivets in all except for the very last one, closest to the 802 U. The only thing I did differently from the plans was to cleko the 893 L and R to the 894 bottom skin and pulled the front up very carefully, used some blocks to keep it up and bent my fingers in ways they weren't ment to and started bucking from the front instead of the back. I used a pop rivet on the last one, it was going to be to painful otherwise. Now on to installing the gear weldments, that is turning into a treat.
Thanks for the help

Randy