John Sannizzaro came up today and we riveted the first three ribs into the right tank skin. This was mostly a mess, so it was good that John was there to help. As with the stiffeners, it’s somewhat difficult to tell during riveting when the shop heads are correctly formed because they’re covered in Proseal. John looks at the circular “print” of the shop head in the residual Proseal on the bucking bar to make sure the shop head is the correct diameter, and that seems to work.

Another thing I learned is that the $120 tungsten bucking bar I bought from Bucking Bars by Webster was worth what it cost. It’s very easy to maneuver that small 5/8″x1″x4″ bar into the tank leading edge, and it’s a lot easier to keep a grip on it when your hands are covered in Proseal.

The last thing I learned is that an ordinary mushroom set on a 2X rivet gun can do a great job of riveting once you get the hang of placing the set squarely on the rivet. By rocking the gun and set very slightly, you can actually feel the set “center” on the dimple even with a rivet installed. Use one hand to keep the set in place, and the other to hold the gun and squeeze the trigger, and you can get very nice rivets with no ‘smileys’. This also helps avoid the need to press firmly with the rivet gun, which would cause slight ‘dips’ in thinner skin. Of course, this only works when you have a partner who’s bucking the rivet.

Here’s the first couple of ribs we installed…

John had a good time…or maybe it was just the MEK fumes.

I’m just happy that we didn’t ‘smiley’ a tank skin…