Matt's RV-7 Project

Occasionally, living in Kansas has its advantages – like the way I can order something from the Yard Store in Wichita and it gets here the next business day for like six bucks. Here's the new (rebuilt) rivet squeezer I received today:

It is a clone of the Chicago Pneumatic CP-214, but I don't know who actually made this one. It looks like it was built when FDR was president and has obviously seen a lot of use, but it still works great. Those 1/8" AD4 rivets I was having trouble squeezing by hand are no problem for this guy. In fact, a typical work session with the pneumatic squeezer goes something like this:

Me: Here is a rivet that needs to be squeezed.
CP-214: DESTROY!!!

You get the idea. The folks who say this is the most useful riveting tool they've ever bought are speaking the truth.

Here I've set the rivets in the center elevator bearing assembly I was working on the other day:

…and then drilled the bolt holes that will attach it to the HS spar:

Then I switched back to the vertical stabilizer spar, seen here resting in the grass after receiving a little primer touch-up:

Although it looks okay in the photo, I'm not totally happy with the way it turned out. For one thing, I foolishly damaged some holes by trying to drill out three rivets with the wrong size drill bit. Must double-check drill size next time. Those holes will have to be filled with bolts, probably, so there goes the weight savings I picked up by cutting the optional lightening holes.

The other thing I don't like about the VS spar is that I oriented the rivets so the manufactured head is on the forward (internal) side and the shop head is aft (outside). While this is a purely cosmetic issue, it bothers me that I didn't think about which way I was going to put the rivets in so the pretty side would be out. Yes, this is extremely picky, but I am considering chalking this one up to practice and ordering new parts to build a replacement VS spar with the lessons I learned on this one. Stay tuned…

Not much time to work on the project tonight, but got the vertical stabilizer rear spar clecoed back together:

This is my DRDT-2 dimpling tool. It's more expensive than the usual C-frame dimpler, but it rocks. It's easy to dimple one-handed, it's stress-free, and it makes no noise so I can dimple at night without waking up the neighbors.

I used the well-known trick of removing the blue plastic along the rivet lines using a wooden straightedge and a soldering iron, and it worked great.

Lots of work but not many photos today. Final-drilled the vertical stabilizer ribs and spars, dimpled, countersunk the spar doubler, scuffed the surfaces, cleaned with acetone, and primed with GBP-988 self-etching primer. This is not the absolute most robust primer that's available, but it's certainly one of the easiest to apply and it seems fairly durable. It's also on Van's official list of recommended primers, which must count for something. I also know that lots and lots of RV's are flying around out there with this stuff in 'em, and I don't think any have rusted out of the sky yet. I figure this airplane will last at least as long as I'm interested in flying it.

Today was a productive day. Spent a good long while unpacking the two big boxes and taking inventory. Everything was well packed and no parts were damaged or missing. Decided to start with the vertical stabilizer instead of, as the plans have you begin, on the horizontal. Not only is the VS a simpler piece to build, but the completed assembly is smaller and there's less to ruin when working the bugs out of the build process.

First real construction step was to debur all the internal VS parts, flute the ribs and straighten the flanges, and then cleco the VS skeleton together:

Next, on goes the VS skin, to be match-drilled with the underlying ribs and spars. At this point I've done maybe an hour of actual work, and already it's starting to look like something that might go on an airplane someday:

Here comes the first optional step – cutting the lightening holes in the rear spar doubler. Some people skip this step, but I decided to go for it. It only took an hour or so, and it saves a couple ounces. Yeah, it's only a couple ounces, but back in the tail at the end of that long lever arm, every little bit helps. Plus it looks kinda cool:

The fly cutter – or whirling implement of doom – is not my favorite tool to use. It's dangerous-looking and it makes a godawful noise when cutting through thick stock like this. But going slow, being careful, and using a lot of cutting fluid makes it come out okay. Some work with a Scotchbrite wheel afterwards and the lightening holes came out great.