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<\/a><\/p>\nThe problem with these nutplates is that they’re in a very awkward position to rivet, and the forward one has a rivet in a really bad spot – right where the seat floor ends. \u00a0I also didn’t think enough about where to place the block before I drilled the mounting holes, ’cause I could’ve moved the block a little to put the mounting holes in a more accessible location. But the deed is done and I have a problem to solve…what’s to be done?<\/p>\n
Jumping ahead a few steps, you can see where those forward nutplate rivets lay on the F-705 bulkhead, and how dimpling the hole closest to the bolt would have made for a very messy rivet…not necessarily unsafe, because this isn’t a particularly critical part of the plane, but that sort of workmanship I wouldn’t want others to see.<\/p>\n So, I elected to use some AN470-3 universal rivets I happened to have in the shop, but that meant finding a way to remove some material from the seat and baggage floors surrounding the topmost rivet hole.<\/p>\n I noodled over this one for awhile, and then decided to try a cylindrical cutting bit in the Dremel tool. But I had to find a way to protect the F-705 while using the Dremel…and a piece of tongue depressor, tapered with the belt sander so I could slide it between the floors and bulkhead, fit the bill perfectly. \u00a0If you’ve read this far, you already know it worked and I was able to get the nutplates riveted. \u00a0I also had to insert a small 0.025″ shim under part of the forward nut plate so it would lie flat across the seat rib flange.<\/p>\n One other task remaining was to blind-rivet the forward fuel line cover supports to the fuselage sides. I didn’t get any pictures of the supports riveted in place, but if look at the pic above you’ll see the left support clamped in place for drilling.<\/p>\n With those supports riveted in place, I prepped and primed all the interior parts I’ve been working on for the past few weeks.<\/p>\n Here’s the forward tunnel cover and forward\/aft flap housings screwed in place.<\/p>\n And here’s the rest of the interior temporarily attached to get ready for seat fitting. Looks pretty good, I think…<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Thanks to my enforced absence from work, I had a few days to finish up the flap housing and get the seats installed. The last flap issue I had to deal with was installing two nutplates for the flap actuator … Continue reading <\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>The LP4-3 blind rivets that Van’s calls for are far<\/span> too long for this application, so I substituted some MSP-42 blind rivets that are both shorter and stronger. I still had to grind down the heads a little for extra room so they’d fit into the limited space behind the support and F-7101 gusset.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n