Desert Rat
Well Known Member
Hey guys,
I bought a used, mostly assembled wing and emp kit and have been slowly but surely inspecting it one piece at a time for build quality and conformity. Came across something today that I'm gonna have to ponder a little bit. I'm hoping somebody might have a technique that would help.
On one of the ailerons, the previous owner forgot to install the pop rivets on the back side of the counterbalance pipe common to the nose ribs. They match drilled the holes, but space is too tight to get a pop rivet tool in there, even if I remove the aileron hinge brackets. Likewise, I think that the angle is too great to pull it sideways with any confidence of getting it to set straight, especially on the inboard side.
Does anyone have a technique for pulling a pop rivet without a gun? I'm thinking about maybe experimenting with some sort of threaded mandrel, but haven't started experimenting yet and don't want to reinvent the wheel if somebody's already been there.
will try to attach my very first photo here to hopefully make this a little more clear
I bought a used, mostly assembled wing and emp kit and have been slowly but surely inspecting it one piece at a time for build quality and conformity. Came across something today that I'm gonna have to ponder a little bit. I'm hoping somebody might have a technique that would help.
On one of the ailerons, the previous owner forgot to install the pop rivets on the back side of the counterbalance pipe common to the nose ribs. They match drilled the holes, but space is too tight to get a pop rivet tool in there, even if I remove the aileron hinge brackets. Likewise, I think that the angle is too great to pull it sideways with any confidence of getting it to set straight, especially on the inboard side.
Does anyone have a technique for pulling a pop rivet without a gun? I'm thinking about maybe experimenting with some sort of threaded mandrel, but haven't started experimenting yet and don't want to reinvent the wheel if somebody's already been there.
will try to attach my very first photo here to hopefully make this a little more clear