Seat Belt Lugs

After all the part preparation it was good to actually start putting it all together. The picture above shows a seat belt attach lug and seat belt lug bracket ready for riveting to the baggage ribs.

The vice provided good support during riveting with the squeezer.

Bulkhead Angle & Idler Bracket Assembly

I squeezed the F-01405L Bulkhead Angle to the F-01405 Bulkhead, being careful to leave the holes which will be used to attach the Idler Bracket …

… after squeezing the rivets to connect the F-01405E-L & -R Idler Brackets and VA-146 Bearing, we used a long rivet set on the gun to attach it to the bulkhead. Due to the bent flange on the brackets restricting access, we had to put the manufactured heads on the forward side of the bulkhead and use an angled face of the bucking bar.

Back Riveting Center Section Lower Doublers and Stiffeners

Back riveting the little 426’s to fill the nutplate holes in the Center Bottom Skin. This is only done on the tail dragger.

I find using my long back rivet set gives better results … maybe because any lateral movement of the gun has less effect on the angle?

Obviously great care is needed here to be sure the steel plate is under the rivet!!!!

The manual correctly specifies AN426AD4-4.5 rivets for the Lower Doublers. Snag was that no 4.5’s were provided in my kit … not even in the inventory?

Anyway, I trimmed -5’s to get the job done.

A quick job to rivet the stiffeners, with it being easier to make sure the steel plate was in the correct position.