Posted by Pulled down the Vertical Stabilizer Skin which has been sitting on a shelf for the last two months. There were a couple of hard-to-access dimples I still had to make near the fold, so I got my “close quarters” dimple die set and set off. This is the one you can use in a pull rivet gun. First dimple went OK, but then when doing the second, the copper mandrel broke, and the female die rolled off somewhere. Nowhere to be found. I ended up fabricating one from a scrap piece of angle aluminum… just drill a hole and countersink. It worked OK but not great.
Then I deburred the edges of the VS skin a little better, and prepped the inside for primer (grey scotch brite then acetone clean). Primed the inside.
Then after the primer dried adequately for handling, I put the VS skeleton inside the skin and clecoed it all up.
Couldn’t end the night without setting the first rivets in this skin. Went OK mostly, except for those close quarters dimples, the rivets don’t sit in them that perfectly. Managed to put a small dent in the skin too (not pictured) as I must have had the bucking bar misplaced. Should be easy enough for the paint shop to fix. This row is pretty blind riveting, with one had inserted inside from the bottom with the bucking bar and the other hand operating the rivet gun.
Builder's Log 