Most of the past week has been devoted to assembly and riveting. As the title suggests its a lot of riveting and I'm trying to do it mostly by myself. There are many rivets I just can't do by myself so at some point I will have to call for help but so far so good. :-)
On a related note I finally made the decision to use the Grove brakes that come with the kit. Originally I was concerned about the brakes based on comments I read on VAF but it seems Van's has made a change from the older Cleveland brakes to the newer Grove brakes like the ones I have on my 9A. With that decision made I was able to order my finishing kit. They say its a 10 week wait so I figure it should come just about the right time, or a little early is fine too.
Oh, one more thing, Jeff and I did a little IFR practice this past week and were treated to a beautiful sunset. Obviously the pictures below don't do it justice but I thought I would share.
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| I decided to insulate the floor area both in front and back. There will be carpet on the floor but I like the idea of extra insulation to keep our tootsies from getting too cold in the winter. This picture is of the passenger side front. |
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| I took this picture after the assembly process was completed and just before the marathon riveting started. |
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| And here is the same side after day 1 of riveting. Note that the fuselage riveting is broken into 4 sections starting with the aft half of each side. This week I was only able to get half the riveting done or more specifically the aft half of the assembly. As I already mentioned I do have about 8 rivets in the aft half that I need help with. |
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| Aluminum is really a bugger to photograph. This is the aft half of the left side of the assembly but the reflection of the blue tarp on the side skin makes it hard to see. |
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| Finally I had to take a picture of the whole thing as it sits this afternoon. Now its time to go watch the Superbowl...for the advertisements only since I don't really give a rats butt who wins. :-) |
