5.6 hrs
Finally put in some time on right wing final prep.Finish deburring nose ribs
Drill holes in 6 and 7 nose ribs for leading edge light attach.
Debur spice plate.
Drill spice plates for nutplates.
Cut holes for electrical conduit in main ribs and debur.
Debur and countersink spar
Scour splice plate and edges of nose ribs for priming.
Dimple nose ribs.




Need to scour and dimple the main ribs and then the ribs can all be primed.
Will try to use alodine to treat the main spar this time. Discovered three missing nutplate rivets for the outboard access plate.

Tuesday 1.0 hr
Finish deburring main ribs. Disassemble leading edge. Start deburring nose ribs.

Monday .6 hrs
Main rib deburring.

2.6 hrs
Sure is nice to have the proseal work behind me. Still a little to do on the tank, not to mention the leak check, but the worst is over.

Disassembled the right wing and started the deburring. The rivet count is north of 5000, which means I've deburred more than ~25,000 times! Only 75K to go!

Once it was all apart, started deburring on the rear spar. Then knocked out the wing walk doubler, and got about half of the main ribs done. It'll take all week to get all the deburring out of the way. My goal is to shoot primer and countersink the main spar next weekend.

6.2 hrs, 215 rivets

Sealed the right tank today. What a brutal task. Once you start, there's no stopping till the last rivet is set. And, as I learned last time, you better not stop till the tools and the almost 200 clecos used are all cleaned up. The squeezer is used for most of the rivets, and my hands are tired!

Final cleaning of tank and baffle.
Install fuel pickup to access plate.
Rivet anti-rotation bracket to access plate.
Proseal and rivet baffle to tank.
Rivet brackets to tank.

Still need to attach the access plate, and then check for leaks. Before that, I want to install a return fitting for fuel injection. Had ordered fittings from Van's but ordered the wrong ones.

But now the right wing can be disassembled.

1.1 hrs
Fabricate the A-914 control stops. Messed up one by drilling the hole too big. The 1/4 inch dimension near the comments threw me off. After drilling a first hole just short of 1/4, it was clear that it wasn't right. The drawings don't really say what size, but it's obvious after the fact that it should be a #30. Doh! Had enough scrap left to make another. These don't appear to be too critical on their dimensions.

1.6 hrs
Torqued fuel pickup to the bulkhead fitting. Then picked the correct anti-rotation bracket. Drill and deburr the antirotation bracket.



These newer RV-9 kits no longer need the anti-rotation AD with safety wire and all, because they come with a clip that fits over the nut after its torqued down, and prevents any rotation. The bracket is riveted to the access cover.

Started on ailerons! Decided to wait till the weekend to seal up the tank. The proseal arrived today, but I'm in no hurry.
Deburr aileron attach brackets for both wings.
Cleco left brackets to wing.

1.2 hrs
Finish fabbing fuel pickup line. Roughen and clean tank access plate. Will need to add a hole for the fuel injection return lines. Fittings for this are on the way from Van's.

Use the stripping wheel to roughen the mating seams on the baffle. Had already scuffed with scotchbrite, but as mentioned earlier, was advised to be more agressive. Also used sandpaper to scuff the outside of the baffle where the Z brackets will attach.

Then cleaned the baffle, first with soap and water, then with MEK.

Tank sealing now awaits more ProSeal, also on the way from Van's.

4.4 hrs, 24 rivets
Install capacitive fuel sender plates and route wires.
Install vent tube.
Rivet inboard rib.



Start working on fuel pickup. Messed up the tube made last year. Made a nice tube flair, but forgot to put the compression fitting on. Then messed it all up trying to recover. Went to Wayne's house to get a new piece of tubing. Ended up helping him get a fuselage part in place and some of the riveting done.

3.7 hrs, 24 rivets
Rivet outboard tank rib and nose reinforcement plate.
Attach terminal to outboard fuel sender plate and seal.



Drill holes for BNC and vent lint in inboard rib.

Install BNC and vent line fitting and seal.


Cut vent line to length.
Roughen and clean inboard nose reinforcement plate.
Clean and prime nose attach bracket.

3.0 hrs, 48 rivets
Started by cleaning the last two inboard ribs. Then riveted them in. Took just a bit longer today, but I finally felt like it was done right. And that's all of the hard parts. The outboard ribs can be squeezed. The nose reinforcement plates and attach bracket have to be bucked, but that's easy compared to bucking ribs.



Tomorrow is a 3R9 work day, then more tank construction. Should be done with the tank this weekend.

2.3 hrs, 48 rivets
Broke the lull and actually riveted ribs to the tank. Various events, and reluctance, conspired to keep me from riveting on the tank. But got two ribs riveted in tonight. Only two more interior ribs to go, then it's downhill from there. Don't know why I'm so intimidated by the tank work right now. The other tank wasn't bad at all.

1.5hrs, 26 rivets
Worked on the tank today. Mixed up some proseal and got to work. Set two rivets to seal the tooling hole in the outboard rib.
Then got the center rib riveted in. Not happy with the riveting quality. Not sure why it's not as good as the other tank.

4.3 hrs, 120 rivets
Started this morning by cleaning the right tank skin and redoing the masking.
Then used the stripping wheel to roughen the tank ribs as was done for the left tank.
Washed the ribs again.
Then clecoed the ribs back into the tank skin, yet again.

About that time Ed Rupp, my riveting help, arrived. Used to work with Ed years ago at KMW/Andrew. We were having lunch yesterday when it came up that we were both pilots.
I mentioned a project, and Ed gets really excited: "Really! What kind?". Me, "An RV-9A."
Ed, "Oh, man, I've been researching Van's kits for a couple of years! Can I come over and see it?". Well, besides that fact that it's great having friends over, I can't imaging a kit builder who isn't happy to show off the project. And when you have rivets to drive, you're always on the lookout for help. "Sure, come on over. We'll learn how to rivet."



So we did a short course on sheet metal construction techniques. Ed's first rivets were way better than mine!

After lunch, we launched into riveting stiffeners to the left wing. That was 110 of the rivets.

Then with Ed (and Suanne's) help, we fine tuned the wing cradle and took the wing off the stand on to the cradle.



After Ed had to go, finished left rear spar skin riveting. The inboard 5 rivets are a bear, because of the spar doubler and interfering rivets. I had to grind down one of my bucking bars to get the job done right. It took a couple of attempts on most of those five rivets.

.6 hrs
Went flying today in one of the 172s. Picked up DT at Taylor (T74), made a short flight over his neighborhood, and returned to Taylor. Pulled up to the fuel island, and there was a pastel blue RV-8A there. After a bit, we walked over and introduced ourselves. The pilot was none other than Seth Hancock. I mentioned that I was building a 9A, and he asked me what the engine plan was. I said "probably a 320 of some kind", and he says, "I've got one on the stand you need to take a look at". I'm going to arrange a visit, but it's still too early.

One thing he asked is how I was preparing tank surfaces for sealing. He recommended ~150 grit sandpaper, and that my scotchbrite method is probably not best.

So tonight I removed all of the ribs, readjusting masking tape, and started resanding. I'm going to resand the skin for the outer ribs, and the tank baffle. I will also sand all of the ribs. To late to redo the stiffeners, and the other tank. I can't imagine the other tank will ever leak, I've seen what proseal can do, and how it was applied on the left tank.

Spent an hour last night working on the wing cradle.

.6 hrs
Debur right stringers.
Trim and deburr left outboard stringer.
Cleco left stringers to wing.

5 hrs, 367 rivets
A new one day rivet record! And knocking on the door of 5000 rivets, about the 25% mark, at least in terms of rivets.
Started today by masking the right tank skin to prepare for rib riveting. Then clecoed the interior ribs into the skin. This is way easier once everything is match drilled and dimpled. It becomes a one person job. After they were all in, remove the center rib and cleaned it one last time, along with the skin. Ready to proseal and rivet.



Then John McLellan (bro-n-law) came over to help with riveting. I decided to get the outboard wing skin done so I can get that wing off the stand and into the cradle. After training him we banged out some rivets, getting most of it done before he had to go home to get ready for the superbowl party. He sent Suanne over (my sister). She took a bit longer to train, but pretty soon she was going, "Oh, yah. Perfect!" Together with Suanne, we knocked out the rest of the outboard skin, except for a few rivets on the rear spar that I'll hit with a squeezer once it's on the cradle.



Now I'm ready for some football!