No sooner did I write that it is now way too hot to build planes, I spent a large part of July 4th in the garage in what felt like 100 degree humidity. It was only 94 or so though, so I had that going for me at least.
First task of the morning was to get that darned rivet out. The advice seemed to be the same from everyone so I started there and then improvised with a slash and hack method. I was able to use the snips to free the stem such that it could rotate inside the rivet head, then Teri and I hacked at the back of the rivet and pulled it out. New rivet went in, and my new gun pulled it perfectly without much effort.
I hadn’t intended doing much more than that but, much like a Vegas casino in the distance, the end point really didn’t seem that far from here. So I reassembled the bottom skins, nose skins and strut fittings. Luckily I remembered to attach the rear fitting first.
Soon I had clecos in everywhere that I wanted.
I first riveted the bottom skins starting with the centre rib and working down and outwards. Then I riveted the spar and finally the nose ribs. At that point I reinserted the trailing edge but not without a little difficulty because it is supposed to go under the bottom skin and I had riveted all the way down the ribs. This wouldn’t be a problem except that the trailing edge has to go over that strut fitting and there was no way to lift it up high enough. So I removed enough rivets to lift it up and slide the trailing edge underneath.
Finally, then I riveted the trailing edge to the rear channel, leaving one hole at the end for the wing tip.
Other than a couple of rivets that will have to be pulled from the inside (because they are obstructed), the bottom of the skin is complete. Next time around I’ll have Teri help me turn it over and then we can begin work on the top skins, fuel tank and wing tip.