All masked up, non-rivet holes marked, my mate Tim on hand … no excuses, the time to rivet on the fuselage sides had arrived!

We used a small step ladder to help with reaching the inside for bucking.

I made sure the working area inside was well protected with cardboard, cushions etc. I couldn’t face a dropped bucking bar through the lower skin!

I didn’t get many pictures of the riveting, since it was quite busy.

We did it over three sessions …

… the first session of about 4 hours saw the aft rivets behind the main spar on both sides set. As suggested we started at the main spar and worked back …

… and then the following day, having set the rivets close to the main spar, we mixed up the Proseal and set the rest of rivets on the sides ahead of the main spar.

I had not clecoed on the F-01419 stiffeners at this stage, since I wanted to gently flex the skins away from the firewall to be able to apply a bead of Proseal.

Although not specified in the manual, I also filled the various gaps between the Firewall and side skins. The masking tae shows some of these areas.

Once the skins were clecoed back in pace on the firewall I clecoed on those F-01419 stiffeners as per the manual.

The rivets along the bottom of the front side skins were the most challenging, due to the limited access.

We jigged up the various bucking bars with blocks of wood etc, using a mirror to check the shop heads.

We used a Footed Bucking Bar to set the rivets along the front floor … these have restricted access due to the lower longhorn.

Next day the masking came off …

… keeping it all nice and free of pesky Proseal.

The 426 rivets in the lower engine mount brackets are shown to be AN426AD4-7’s.

But after trying one, it was just a little too short to make a comfortable shop head. So we used -8’s for the rest.

-7’s were a good choice for the top engine mount brackets.