I bought a mid build RV7 project with in general very good quality workmanship. I do have a concern with some of the rivets being over set on the following parts. F-773 aft side skin to F-768B and F768C upper and lower fuselage J stiffeners. The aft and rear top skins are not in place yet so I have good access to these questionable rivets. The driven head height thickness tolerance for the called for AN426AD3-3.5 is .038" min to .050" max. It's difficult to get an exact measurement but using a depth mic I feel that some of the driven heads are less then the .038, somewhere in the .025 to .030 range. The diameters are in the .170" range which is well above the .122 min diameter range. The large .170 diameter confirms the short overset heights. Specs are from http://vansaircraft.com/public/Specs.htm
My plan was to drill out and replace these overset rivets. A lot of work but doable. Even after drilling thru the rivet center with an undersize .080" dia drill and breaking off the flush head off, the hole diameters are still round and .120" max dia. So well above the max .103 diameter for the 3/32" rivet. I drilled two and have the same hole diameters. I feel my rivet removal drilling on these two holes was good and did not grow the holes to that .120 dia.
I ran a #30 reamer thru with my fingers and set a 1/8" rivet in one of the holes. The -4 rivet is as flush on the skin and the set head looks great.
Having said all that does this seem like an acceptable process to remedy my concerns about the overset rivets? Has anyone faced the same issues and how did you go about the fix?
I will run this by Van's also but appreciate any opinions.
My plan was to drill out and replace these overset rivets. A lot of work but doable. Even after drilling thru the rivet center with an undersize .080" dia drill and breaking off the flush head off, the hole diameters are still round and .120" max dia. So well above the max .103 diameter for the 3/32" rivet. I drilled two and have the same hole diameters. I feel my rivet removal drilling on these two holes was good and did not grow the holes to that .120 dia.
I ran a #30 reamer thru with my fingers and set a 1/8" rivet in one of the holes. The -4 rivet is as flush on the skin and the set head looks great.
Having said all that does this seem like an acceptable process to remedy my concerns about the overset rivets? Has anyone faced the same issues and how did you go about the fix?
I will run this by Van's also but appreciate any opinions.