In my last article, I ran into an issue that I could not rivet the rivets just on the bottom of the F-601J L and R angle.
Even if drilling out the bottom rivets that were already set in the F-601J angle would not enable access (it would also not be a good idea). I probably have set the line a bit too far backward on the firewall stiffener.
I contacted Vans support on this issue and Sterling responded: "If you are unable to drive a satisfactory rivet in this location you could use a Cherry CR3212-4-? of the proper length."
I kept scratching my head and in the end went with this solution.
The only problem with that is that the heads of the cherrymax rivets are size of an 1/8 rivet and my dimples and countersink are for 3/32.
No way I can esthetically solve that now with all the rest of the bottom skin fully rivetted on.
The only option wouldbe to countersink the bottom skin a little for a better fit but that would weaken the structure and I choose not to do that.
This location is on the bottom side and not visible so I decided to set the cherry's in the 3/32 dimples which would not look as good but at least be as strong (or even stronger) as a set rivet.
Updrilled the 4 holes to #30 and installed the CR3212-4-4 rivets.
Even with those I had some difficulties setting them as the stem hardly got passed the already set rivets of the outer holes.
As you can see above and below, the cr's protrude a little above the skin but it's less then I expected and will be invisible once turned around.
Inner view, as you can see in the picture below, I marked the outer shop heads of the F60J's during insertion. No big deal
As I had some time left, I also torqued the AN3 bolts on the fuel tack reinforcement brackets. Very difficult to read and made a bit of a mess with the torque sealer.
Outside view,looks nice. Although I still don't understand why they need to put a screw in this location on an RV-7 and not just install a AND426-AD4 rivet as all the rest of the angle is fixated using solid rivets.
Next torqued and sealed the F705 bolt. I had to calibrate by hand here as the location is also tight here and no way to get the torque wrench on the nut.
Fastened by hand and checked torque on the bolt side.
