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diamond

Well Known Member
For those of you who have finished a 9(A) or 7(A), I'm wondering what percent of the build required hands-on help from someone else. Key word here is required, because I know many of you had help other than was absolutely necessary. The reason I ask is because when I start my build, my hours will be in the late evenings when most people are in bed. If the 9 or 7 requires much help, than this may affect my choice in builds.

Thanks
 
I did a -9A quick build kit. The only help I needed was help riveting the last wing skin on, the skin on top of the fuse behind the baggage area and the skin over the instrument panel. Combined time probably less than one full day. I did get other assistance with painting and fiberglass but just because I hadn't done either of those before.
 
I am done with the 7A slow-build tail, wings, fuselage and most of the finishing kit. I prefer to buck rivets alone even when the reach is awkward so that I can feel whats happening at both ends of the rivet. Some rivets are impossible to reach alone and for those I have received 15 to 20 hours of help from various untrained volunteers. It has all gone well.
 
The vast majority of the plane can be built by yourself. You could even rivet the bottom wing skins on, if you want to stretch.

Go ahead and start building. In the places where an extra hand is helpful but not required... wait for a weekend when you can grab a neighbor. There is always something else you can be working on in the mean time.
 
N99WC (a slow build) was built almost entirely single handed. The only place where additional help was needed was for the riveting of the top skin forward of the canopy. I had many bruises and cuts to show for my do it myself attitude.
I would suggest getting much more help than I did if you can. But, it can be done with minimal help.
 
I'm still working on the fuselage, but up to now I've only needed help riveting the top skins on the wings, a couple of hard to reach rivets on the wing leading edge ribs, and connecting the forward/center/rear sections of the fuselage.

In each case I was able to conscript one of my kids or a friend to spend a couple of hours driving rivets. Riveting partners sure do make it go faster!
 
99%

I did 99% solo. Impossible for me to do it alone were three places;
1. top forward fuselage skin (corners by engine mounting bolts only)
2. joint at the bottom by rear spar bulkhead
3. two middle stiffeners at the bottom of fuse forward bottom skin
but if you have long hands and a foot long tungsten bucking bar it's doable :)
 
I dinged up some skins pretty bad doing it by myself, resulting in hours of extra work to correct. When you are all stretched out, you simply can't control the rivet gun as well and it can easily jump aroud. I highly recommend that when you find you can't control the gun because you are stretched out, get some help. I could have gotten help but was in a hurry, and I am sure paying for it now at the finishing stage.
 
20 hours help for a slow build 7. This is consistent across four projects. Can't really cut it less without risking many bad rivets, dinged skins, and then only an hour could be saved for a few hard to reach rivets. Struggling solo to avoid hassling others probably adds 40 hours, but such is the price of domestic tranquility.

If you're five feet tall, add several hours.

Your helper should shoot, you buck. Then you control the shop head formation and do the bleeding. Another point: really, thoroughly, deburr and smooth the lightening holes in the wing and fuse ribs.

John Siebold
 
I am only a few hours shy of starting the finishing kit on my slowbuild 9A, and I've only had about 2 hours of help so far from another person for some rivets that just REQUIRE another set of hands. You can handle 99% of this solo, and in fact the first time I absolutely had to have another set of hands was riveting the bottom skins on the forward fuselage.

I hear a lot of people complaining about riveting the wing skins solo, I didn't think it was any big deal really. As long as your arms don't look like a pro football player, you can do it fairly easily.
 
Very little help needed

The only place I absolutely needed help was during fuselage assembly, and that will be the same for both the 7 and 9. When you attach the tailcone, you need help, and when I put on the upper aft skin, my arms just weren't long enough for a few rivets. :eek:
I did my 7A wings all by myself.
 
For those few "impossible to buck yourself" rivets, could you use pop rivets as an acceptable alternative?
 
MikeJ 7A said:
For those few "impossible to buck yourself" rivets, could you use pop rivets as an acceptable alternative?
Click to expand...
In a word - NO. These locations are definitly structural, and there are enough of them to be a major concern. You'd have to have a conversation with the Vans engineers before considering that, and having done structural design in the past, I'd be surprised if they said OK.
However, there are so few places where you NEED help, and you can easily plan ahead to get help for those spots, and you'll only need help for a short time - a few minutes for the upper aft skin, and less than an hour for the fuselage assembly if you are prepared.
 
One place where an extra pair of hands is REALLY helpful is when fitting the wings to the fuse to drill the rear spar bolt holes. It could be done solo I suppose, but a helper is great!
 
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