With the stiffeners and skins all cured, I started riveting the stiffeners to the rudder skin. This was my first time backriveting, and it couldn't have gone much better than it did. I'll echo what a lot of other builders say - backriveting is the easiest method of riveting that produces the best-looking results.
 |
| Rivets and tape in place. |
Or should I say, it produces the best-looking results when done correctly:
 |
| This is how the stiffeners should look when they're attached... |
 |
| ...and this is how they look when you're not paying attention. This setup would make it pretty difficult to close the rudder skins together, so I don't recommend it! Thankfully it wasn't too difficult to drill out the rivets on that first stiffener and reattach it the correct way. |
We had a Halloween party at our house, so I came back outside and continued riveting anytime I got bored or sick of making small talk with other people. Some curious partygoers ventured out in search of the noise and watched me work for a bit. It made for a good opportunity to show off the build so far and to demonstrate how the rivet gun works.
