Don't know if this is getting too nit-picky, but after joining the fuselage, I noticed a bump in the side skin where the fuselage joins at the F-01418B Aft Fuse Longeron. Looking closer, this is where the skins form a lap joint on top of the longeron, creating a step. To compound the problem, there are 4 closely-spaced rivets in the shape of a square at that location, the forward 2 being on the lap joint and the aft 2 off the joint, thus creating a step (see p 30-07 Fig 1, where the 2 AD3-5 rivets are on the lap joint).
Wound up drilling out the 4 rivets and the next one downstream and putting a tapered shim in to smooth the transition. Helped a lot, but there's still some slight rippling. As a first-time builder I'm not sure how much this kind of thing will show up after the paint job..
Maybe my riveting technique was flawed here, I used a helper inside the fus with a back rivet set and a large 3lb mushroom bucking bar on the outside which may have contributed to creating the step.
Wondering if anyone else had the same problem...
Wound up drilling out the 4 rivets and the next one downstream and putting a tapered shim in to smooth the transition. Helped a lot, but there's still some slight rippling. As a first-time builder I'm not sure how much this kind of thing will show up after the paint job..
Maybe my riveting technique was flawed here, I used a helper inside the fus with a back rivet set and a large 3lb mushroom bucking bar on the outside which may have contributed to creating the step.
Wondering if anyone else had the same problem...
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