Tim helped out today with riveting the Flap Nose & Top Skins.

Thinking ahead to this stage, and also later on for the fuselage, I had purchased another Tungsten Bucking Bar. This was it’s first day out and it proved great.

Small enough to get in between the spar flanges, but having significant mass making setting the rivets an easy job. Pricey but it’ll be worth it!

We set the rivets from the middle outwards. I had checked the D Box for twist a few days ago, but as we riveted I kept an eye out. It won’t be really important until we set the rivets the other side of the D Box, but all seems straight so far.

The manual suggests 426AD3-3.5’s for these rivets (except at the rib flange positions), but we reckoned they were a bit short. Trying a -4 convinced us they were a better choice.

The two aft rivets on each rib are back-riveted, and it proved a quick job. We used pieces of carpet to prop up the flap either side of the steel plate … a perfect thickness to keep everything flat.

All done ready for the bottom skins when pesky work allows.