Archive for December, 2007

Riveted subpanel

Sunday, December 16th, 2007

Right after our Thanksgiving trip we went on a second trip, and as soon as I got back I managed to contract some kind of deadly pandemic, so between sickness and travel I haven't been able to work on the airplane in a month. Today I was finally feeling up to spending some time in the cold garage, during which I managed to rivet the subpanel structure in place.

I riveted on all the things that attach to the center subpanel rib, then installed the outboard subpanel ribs. I found you have to do it in that order, or else there's no way to get the rivet gun in where you need it to go. You can also see in this photo that I've riveted the radio tray mounting brackets to the subpanel.

You're supposed to put washers between the F-7108A center rib and the F-7108B angle, in order to make a slot for the rollbar brace to fit in. I thought the idea of using rivets here was kind of hokey, so I drilled the holes out to #12 and used bolts instead. The rollbar is temporarily installed for this step in order to make sure everything lines up right.

The rivets at the lower outboard corners of the subpanel were a giant pain to put in. I had flashbacks to F-705, which was only slightly worse. I used various single- and double-offset rivet sets on these. Some of the factory heads are a little dinged up, but they're otherwise just fine. I had to remove the fuel vent lines to be able to get in there, which was also annoying.

I was unable to finish the two bottom-most rivets that attach each of the outboard subpanel ribs to the firewall, since I don't have the right rivet set to get in behind the engine mount. I'll pick one up with the inevitable next Avery order, and finish these guys off when I have a chance.

Just another photo of the same stuff. It's good to be able to work on the plane again.