F-770 to F-772 skin rivets

[tgmillso]

With the risk of asking one of those questions that have a blatantly obvious, I have a brief question about what joins the F-770 fwd side skin to the F-772 bottom skin and eventually the F-717 lower longeron on the RV-7 tail dragger. A wiser man would wait until Monday morning to call Van's so that you only have to express your ignorance to one individual, however curiosity has the better of me. On the "A" model, it appears one of the attachments for the landing gear mount is bolted on here, but for the life of me, I can't find anything in the plans or manual that says how these skins should be joined at this location on the tailwheel version.
Any ideas?
Tom.

 

[nilberg]

I asked myself the same question. As you, I couldn't find anything in the drawings. I looked at others builders log and it looks to me that nothing is there.

As there were no prepunched holes, I left it as is, i.e. nothing. If someone wants to convert to 7a, it needs to be match drilled to the gear weldement anyways.

 

[tgmillso]

Wow. Thanks. This isn't quite what I was expecting, but I guess it makes sense. I guess I could just fay seal this area to reduce the chances of capillary action/moisture egress. I fay sealed with Sikaflex Pro the whole lower aft section of the fuselage and it came up great,l so I may have another crack at it here. Thanks again,
Tom.

 

[wjb]

Yea ... nothing there on mine! Just some extra real estate.