Wondering about RV-7 kit

Hi I am thinking about starting this big project of building my own plane. Still have some basic questions.
For the standard rv 7 kits, Do I need to drill any hole ? I thougnt that all the kit is pre-punched, but then I see many builders that are using a dimpling tool, so its not clear to me if it is really needed or I can trust that I will find all the "matching" holes I need already in place??

Another question has to do with priming, in vans webpage it states:

"Many of the steel components are now powder-coated at the factory, sparing the builder the tedious task of preparing, priming and painting them".

But again I see many builders logs that do actually prime their parts, so I am confused, do I need to buy all the priming tools? or that is something that is already done in factory?

Thanks in advance for your information!

You'll need to drill holes, yes. Even the pre-punched holes will ALL need to be "match drilled", which opens the hole up to its final size and make sure the holes are aligned perfectly -- for example, wing skins and ribs. Some parts don't have all the holes drilled, and some you need to fabricate yourself out of angle stick. Some holes are pre-punched with (for example) 1/8" holes, and need to be drilled ot to 1/4". So, yes, your drill will get used - a lot.

Dimpling and countersinking is another matter entirely. You'll get a LOT of dimpling and countersinking practice; none of it's done for you.

As for priming, you can prime or not prime most of the sheet metal parts. Anything that's not alclad aluminum (angles, etc) needs to be primed. The steel parts are powder coated at the factory, but none of the aluminum is prepped. How you do it is up to you. Some guys don't prime at all, some of them scuff the parts with Scotch-brite, wipe down with solvent, degrease, acid etch, alodine, them prime with epoxy. All of the airplanes will fly.

I'd suggest figuring out which model you're interested in building and ordering the preview plans. You can read them and find out a lot about the process. Not all of it, but a lot. Hanging out here will give you a lot of information too, but in many cases (like priming, tip-up vs. slider, nose vs. tail wheel) you'll have to sort through it and figure out what makes sense for you.

Yes, there are plenty of holes to drill, but that is the fun of fabrication. Get the preview plans and study them. You will find lots of instructions to fabricate parts from raw aluminum stock like angle, tubing and sheets. Nothing too hard, but having the right tools like a drill press, grinding wheel and band saw make it easy.

Welcome to VAF!

Guillermo welcome to the good ship VAF

Good to have you here.

Guille said:

Hi I am thinking about starting this big project of building my own plane. Still have some basic questions.
For the standard rv 7 kits, Do I need to drill any hole ? I thougnt that all the kit is pre-punched, but then I see many builders that are using a dimpling tool, so its not clear to me if it is really needed or I can trust that I will find all the "matching" holes I need already in place??

Another question has to do with priming, in vans webpage it states:

"Many of the steel components are now powder-coated at the factory, sparing the builder the tedious task of preparing, priming and painting them".

But again I see many builders logs that do actually prime their parts, so I am confused, do I need to buy all the priming tools? or that is something that is already done in factory?

Thanks in advance for your information!

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Estimado Gullermo, trata de tomar contacto con Roberto Buonocore, es un experto armador de 7s y vive en Mar del Plata, esta en facebook, el te puede asesorar mas que bien, yo vivo en Chile si pasas por ac? avisa y te saco a volar

Thank you all! for your exact and prompt replies...
I am dreaming about this project for a while now, but still wondering if the vans rv7 is the right kit for me.
Actually I was looking for smthing lighter to start with(zenair stol ch750 maybe?), but, yes Roberto Buonacore's project illustrated me about this other option.

DaleB, bruceh: Ok so as I imagined the preview plans is a must have, I will be ordering them asap to get a better idea. All the "CNC machined", "pre-punched to match holes" marketing wording in the website confused me a little about the big picture of the work needed.

Mike S: thank you very much!

HSANTIBANEZ: Si gracias, voy a tratar de contactarlo asi le pregunto mejor. Te tomo la palabra, que lindo debe ser volar sobre Viña! Abrazo.

I've read somewhere the RV14 does not require match drilling. That being said with the exception of the 12 all RV kits involve a lot of dempoling.

Guille, Why don't you check out the RV12. Very easy, fairly simple, and complete.

Guille said:

DaleB, bruceh: Ok so as I imagined the preview plans is a must have, I will be ordering them asap to get a better idea. All the "CNC machined", "pre-punched to match holes" marketing wording in the website confused me a little about the big picture of the work needed.

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Match-drilling with these kits doesn't take much time; you are not removing much material at all so it goes quickly. It took me longer to cleco the skins to the ribs on my wing than it did to match-drill all of the holes. Dimpling and deburring is still required, though.

What the matched holes really save you is the time to line all the parts up and carefully drill them out one by one. On my dad's RV-6, the wing skins had pilot holes but the ribs did not. We had to draw lines down the middle of the flange on each rib, and poke them from the ends with sticks until we could see the line through the pilot holes. That process took us a couple days, compared to a couple hours on my -7.