Another "riveting bottom skins" suggestion.

I have recently done quite a bit of searching for the best way to rivet on my lower skins. I find it refreshing that there are multiple ways to skin this proverbial cat.

In case it helps anyone, I will post my experience from yesterday. My scenario was rv-4, lower inboard skin, no helper, and no pull rivets. Not one. I started by putting clecos along the rear spar, to do the center wing walk ribs first. It's a LONG reach to the rear spar, but I have long arms. It is a very tight squeeze between those ribs with a bar. (Wear long sleeves- greatly reduces the battle scars) I riveted the rear spar rivets at the wing walk ribs, and then worked forward, left to right and right to left, one hole at a time. I then riveted every other hole on the inboard most rib. (Easy)

Next I riveted rib 4 (outboard wing walk) and worked my way out and forward, in an "L" pattern. To hold the skin back, (I didn't have a helper) I used two bungee cords and a leash hung from the ceiling:

Sort of low tech redneck, but worked great. Here is the skin finished, (other than the lap joint rivets) with no pull rivets. Looks pretty good:

Still have to do the outboard skin, and it might be tougher. I was able to remove the tank for the inboard skin. Hope someone finds this useful.

Gregg

Bottom skins

Pretty much how I did mine. Once I got about 4 rivets from the rear spar, I could reach without pulling the skin back so I clekoed it all down.
I cut the toes off tube socks and used them to protect my arms. I used sections of foam pipe insulation around the access panel holes as well. Finally, I made a wood shim and taped it to the bar so the face of the bar would be in the correct position at the rear spar without looking. Then I made a lanyard from some nylon string and taped it to the bar so I would loose it and make a dent.
I riveted mine in the jig but did need a helper on the outboard skins. My arms are too short.

The outboard skin is a little tougher since its larger. I used a similar method where I took a piece of cord, made a loop and put it around the skin. Then I put tension on it. I slid it up or down to adjust as I went. Then I would have to re-tension and repeat.

I used the string from the ceiling setup too, a stick taped to my tungsten bar and a rag inside for protection against drops. I did the entire bottom skins like this by myself. It worked, I took a lot of breaks. On beginning I clecoed the entire sking down with a lot of clecoes, and then raised up the edge with strings, to me it, helped make sure that the skin didnt try to creep after riveting began.

bird