This past weekend I started on the dreaded bottom skins; the inboard left wing bottom skin to be specific. It was as difficult and miserable as I feared, made worse by some of the additional conduit I ran through the ribs for possible future upgrades that made accessing and bucking the rivets on the rear spar and the aft flanges of the ribs very difficult. I ended up with bloody hands and sore muscles after just a few hours.
But the main reason I'm writing now is because I physically could not get my arm with the bucking bar in my hand up between the wing-walk ribs at the inboard edge to buck the rivets around the flap bracket, nor on the rear spar, nor the aft ends of the ribs. It physically isn't possible to get my arm in between the ribs. How in the world did you guys buck the rivets in this area? Find some skinny kid with 3-foot arms? I'm thinking I'm going to have to use blind rivets. This really troubles me that the required riveting seems to be virtually impossible. Or is there a technique I'm missing, because clearly others have overcome this obstacle? Any advice?
But the main reason I'm writing now is because I physically could not get my arm with the bucking bar in my hand up between the wing-walk ribs at the inboard edge to buck the rivets around the flap bracket, nor on the rear spar, nor the aft ends of the ribs. It physically isn't possible to get my arm in between the ribs. How in the world did you guys buck the rivets in this area? Find some skinny kid with 3-foot arms? I'm thinking I'm going to have to use blind rivets. This really troubles me that the required riveting seems to be virtually impossible. Or is there a technique I'm missing, because clearly others have overcome this obstacle? Any advice?