FWD Heat Duct Rivet Choice

Just finished my brake lines and was feeling confident.

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I went to reinstall the heat duct tee VA-175 when I realized the holes were not dimpled to accept the CS4-4 pull rivets called out on page 36-4. I rechecked the manual and can't find anywhere that tells you to do it (when it was convenient).

I know the easy answer is to just dimple and move on, but the location will only allow for a blind dimple (pop rivet tool). That dimple won't be great in the thicker tunnel material. The actual vent DL-10 is no big deal to dimple.

Did I miss a step or did everyone maybe use different rivets instead?

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Well, I couldn't find anything that tells you to dimple them, but mine were dimpled way back when. More than likely, when I was dimpling the pieces that make up the sides of the tunnel, I read ahead to see if those holes got dimpled or not, looking for the rivet callouts.

These types of omissions become more and more prevalent later in the build, and is a good reason to have a full set of planes, while building. I'd recommend getting the memory stick with full set of plans from Vans.

As far as the dimpling task you now have: If it were me, I'd use my rivet gun with the die holder attachment that comes with the "tight fit dimpling tool" from Cleaveland Tools, to hold the male side of the die and my bucking bar, that I drilled a hole in, to hold the female die. This set up gives a well-formed dimple.

Good luck.

By the time you get to the fuselage, the plans don't hold your hand as much as they do in the previous kits. Many times the plans assume that you know how to prep for a specific type of rivet because you've already a thousand of them previously.

For this particular application, you could just forget about dimpling and use LP4-3 rivets instead. They won't be flush but are in a location that you won't really see or notice anyway when everything is assembled.

bcondrey said:

For this particular application, you could just forget about dimpling and use LP4-3 rivets instead. They won't be flush but are in a location that you won't really see or notice anyway when everything is assembled.

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I completely agree. Throw LP4's in it. Think of all the 50 universal rivets that are an inch away holding your engine mount weldment.