Daniel’s RV-7

Sometimes building absolutely sucks… especially when its hot outside, you don’t understand something and are afraid of screwing up a part, AND you have a bunch of holes to debur!  BUT!!! It is ALL worth it on nights like this! :D  Tonight I mounted everything together to test fit.  Feels good to know the last 4 months of sweating have paid off, and now the end result!  I’m completely stoked.  I’m ready to get this thing in the air!!!  Everything went pretty smoothly except that I had a hard time figuring out how to get the bolts into each rod bearing and hinge to hold everything together… Kinda tight if you don’t have small hands.  Aside from the ugly Alodine on the Horizontal Stabilizer, I think it looks good!!  All thats left is the electric trim (which I started on tonight), drilling the elevator horns, and fiberglass tips (can’t decide if I want to wait and do it all at once or just go ahead and get the parts off the shelf…)

Finished the elevators tonight… man what a good feeling.  All I have left to do is the electric trim, which should be no deal… and I’m still needed 3 MK-319-BS blind rivets to finish the elevator but that is no big deal.  No pictures tonight… too tired.

So today I got a lot of hassle-free work done…  Albeit 104 degrees this afternoon, but I still got alot done.  I started with the spar and reinforcing plates with plate nuts…

Then, I got the stupid E-704 rib riveted to the spar without laying over any rivets… first try, and it went like a piece of cake!  What did I do different?  I DIDN’T follow the directions… The directions tell you to first rivet the 703 and 704 ribs together, THEN rivet them to the spar… Problem with that is the 703 rib is in your way for the two holes that rivet the 704 to the spar.  So what I did was riveted the 704 rib to the spar, THEN riveted the 703 to the 704… worked like a charm!

The rest of the night went pretty uneventful… got 98% of the skin riveted to the spar and ribs… I have about 5 more rivets to set, then I will start working on getting the trim tab attached.

Time for bed… I just might finish this elevator tomorrow… No rush though, I still have a month before I get the wing kit… *yawn*

Got the 2 ribs and spar today… not much going on… just the usual match drill, dimple, deburr, prime…  I’ll start assembly tomorrow.

My replacement trim tab showed up today… so atleast I had something to do this evening!  I worked on bending the trailing edge, and drilling the trim horns to the tab and spar… primed the inside skins, and left it to dry over night… I REALLY like this rattle can primer… so easy.  However, I’m not going to use it on the wings… Since the wings contain the fuel tanks, I want to use an epoxy based primer in case a leak ever develops.  Im probably going with the AKZO kit from Aircraft $pruce!  Can’t decide if I just want to etch and prime, or go through the whole process of etch, alodine, prime… depends on how I feel I guess.  Anyways, I’m off to bed… Tired and have a Dr’s appointment tomorrow!

I dont understand the thought process of Van’s instructions as far as bending the elevator tabs where the trim tab sits… I tried, but what a pain in the ass… very difficult to do correctly without ruining the skin.  I ended up in just cutting them off and making a ribblet out of some scrap as most builders seem to be doing these days.  Anyways, it took several tries, but I finally got it cut and shaped right, drilled, and clecoed.  I’m waiting to hear back from the guys over at VAF to see what kind of flush blind rivet I can use here to hold this ribblet in place.  I’m at a bit of a standstill while I wait for the replacement tab, spar, and ribs.  They need to hurry up!  I’m getting bored and running out of excuses to get out of the house!!

Been a while since the last update… I have been working on the Left Elevator… Got all the way to the point of riveting the skeleton together… but ran into a problem trying to get E-703 & E-704 riveted to the E-702 Spar.  I could not get the rivets to set straight… after about 10 attempts and 10 drillouts, the holes are pretty butchered… So I made a reinforcement plate, and did the above another 10 times! :(  So, I am ordering another spar and ribs… And when this stuff comes in, I’ll find someone to come help!  Here are the pics of all my screw ups!

Closed up the Right Elevator tonight. Nothing exciting. Im waiting on an E-702 Elevator Spar from Vans since I messed the other one up in a countersinking mishap. It probably would have been fine to use it, or even repair it with a reinforcing plate, but what the heck… peace of mind! Besides, I still have 8 weeks before the wings get here. I’ll post pics of the Right Elevator tomorrow, its time for bed.

Update: Here are the pics, the garage is a MESS!!!

Bit of excitement today, faxed over my order for the wing kit to Vans!  Im about 2 months behind doing so, but it wasn’t cheap so I had to save up some dough.  Anyways, should have a box of wings here in about 8 weeks!

Today was pretty short and sweet… very humid in the garage, and lots of flooring to do (we’re putting down wood floors in the house!)  So today, I took everything apart, deburred, dimpled, primed, and began riveting the spar.  Here is the reinforcing plates and nut plates installed: