XOverZero
Well Known Member
Doctrine: If it doesn?t fit you?re doing something wrong.
OK, no argument there but I?m not having any success figuring what I?m doing wrong. In this case, the issue is not that the parts don?t fit ? they do ? it?s that I cannot access some of the rivet locations with the puller. The question here is going to be, has anyone else had the same experience, and what was the solution?
I?m at the point of assembling the baggage floor structure. The floor pans are riveted to the center section aft bulkhead and now I come to Step 4, which says to rivet the baggage ribs first to the bulkhead, then to the floor pans. It explicitly instructs that the rivet heads in this operation must be against the bulkhead. That means they have to be inserted and pulled from the limited space between the two center section bulkheads. There are six rivets attaching each rib to the bulkhead. It was tricky but doable, all except the uppermost rivet in each of the four inner ribs. There was no way to get the rivet and puller into those holes way back in the corner of the rib/bulkhead/floor pan juncture. I have one of those close quarters pullers, and also tried another, borrowed tool that was the more conventional design. No chance either way.
The really odd thing was that Van?s support seemed not to be familiar with the issue, as if it had never been brought up before. After some further discussion, I was advised I could buck some solid rivets in those four locations in the opposite direction from the pulled rivets?which is what I did.
Back to the question: Anybody else have the same problem? What did you do about it? The only reason I ask, other than to satisfy my own curiosity, is to do a pay-it-forward for builders coming after.
OK, no argument there but I?m not having any success figuring what I?m doing wrong. In this case, the issue is not that the parts don?t fit ? they do ? it?s that I cannot access some of the rivet locations with the puller. The question here is going to be, has anyone else had the same experience, and what was the solution?
I?m at the point of assembling the baggage floor structure. The floor pans are riveted to the center section aft bulkhead and now I come to Step 4, which says to rivet the baggage ribs first to the bulkhead, then to the floor pans. It explicitly instructs that the rivet heads in this operation must be against the bulkhead. That means they have to be inserted and pulled from the limited space between the two center section bulkheads. There are six rivets attaching each rib to the bulkhead. It was tricky but doable, all except the uppermost rivet in each of the four inner ribs. There was no way to get the rivet and puller into those holes way back in the corner of the rib/bulkhead/floor pan juncture. I have one of those close quarters pullers, and also tried another, borrowed tool that was the more conventional design. No chance either way.
The really odd thing was that Van?s support seemed not to be familiar with the issue, as if it had never been brought up before. After some further discussion, I was advised I could buck some solid rivets in those four locations in the opposite direction from the pulled rivets?which is what I did.
Back to the question: Anybody else have the same problem? What did you do about it? The only reason I ask, other than to satisfy my own curiosity, is to do a pay-it-forward for builders coming after.
