Click on picture to
view a larger image.
I finally have achieved it, but you’ll have to wait until the end of this post to see the pictures.

I am starting off with something interesting however. Riveting the inside of the spar tunnel has been touched on by several builders in their logs. Early on, after reviewing the plans and what other have said, I was sure there would be no issues.

I’m happy to report that with my rivet gun at least, there are none.  Well, almost.  I did most of the rivets in the forward spar tunnel just as if the rear was attached. That way I could check for clearance for when I do the rear spar tunnel.  The plans call for  -44 rivets and, as expected, the rivet gun can be held at an angle and the rivet fed into the hole.

However, the plans also say you can use -46 rivets on the rear spar through the gusset plate. -46’s won’t go in this way without modification to the rear of the rivet gun head.  What I don’t understand is why the plans say to countersink the back of the gusset plate a little while using -44’s. The thickness of the material is within spec for -44’s so it seems like they should work without dimpling the rear of the gusset plate! Sounds like an e-mail to Kerry.