Ivan's RV-7

Riveting ribs to the bulkheadTimer icon4h

October 24, 2022

Today I worked on riveting the ribs to the F-705 bulkhead.

Only two photos were taken at the end.

The front view. The aft view.

I had trouble installing some rivets.

The ones that go through both the seat rib and the baggage ribs were hard to set straight because bending the baggage rib off the way would not allow keeping the joint tight. In the end, I bent the baggage rib away, then pushed it back a little to make it flat to the bulkhead. It mostly did the trick, but there are a couple of rivets where the baggage rib does not appear to sit flat.

I checked everything with the feeler gauge, and one rib failed it. Half of the ribs are close, but the gauge still does not get to the rivet shank. For two of the baggage ribs, I could have placed the manufactured head on the rib side (thinner material), which would have solved the issue.

However, four of the ribs go together with the seat ribs, so not much choice there.