SB 12-11-09 Center Section Assembly

I bought my flying RV-12 a year ago knowing that several Service Bulletins were not complied with. I have been picking away at the list and now I?m doing the Fuel Tank, Center Section, Oil Tank and Top Engine Mount SB?s. Actually I?m having a lot of fun and finally seeing & learning the deep internals of the machine.

So I?m pulling CR3213-4-2 Cherry Rivets for the fuselage side doubler plates and about 30% of the rivets are failing to set correctly. Nails are snapping off prematurely so that the shop end still has nail sticking out and the manufactured head is void of nail. Not good. I have tried different manual cherry rivet tools and all exhibit same failure. Hole size is correct #30 and rivets sit flush. I push the rivet home when squeezing. Rivets that do seat correctly have a very nice shop end per spec.

I think I have a batch of bad cherry rivets. Any thoughts?

Section 5 of the construction manual (available HERE) has some good info regarding installation of Cherry rivets and evaluating them for proper installation. It also contains a link to the CHERRYMAX Process Manual which has even more information.

Scott, I had not seen/noticed these updated pages from the KAI pages before and I am really impressed. Color, high res photos are really great - encourage Van's to continue to add these upgrades to the already very well documented pages in the various manuals.

I think we are nearing a point that one could build a aircraft with nothing more than an internet connection...actually we're probably beyond that already!