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Aft fuselage top Skin

I've just now reached the point where my orangutan arms will no longer reach into the aft fuselage to rivet the top skin. I have completed the rows of rivets to the F-01407 bulkhead by reaching in from the forward opening. It appears I need to crawl on my back into the tail to buck the rest. The plans suggest removing the aft clecos and rolling up the skin to reach the forward rivets but I don't see how that will work. Any advice or suggestion?
 
Now, I'm not buildlng a -14 and in fact know little about them. But this is what I did on my RV-3B, much narrower than yours.

tpOXtto.jpg


Would something like this work?

Dave
 
That is what I thought to do but the bulkheads are pretty light to support my weight. Maybe filling it with LOTS of blankets would work?
 
I put my fuselage on a blanket on the concrete floor and filled in between the bulkheads with wood blocks. I added blocks until I could support plywood above the rather light bulkheads. As you said, I was concerned about damaging the bulkheads. Others have had success hanging the tail from a tall ceiling and standing inside. Good luck.
 
We put the fuselage on the floor (on blankets), filled the interior spaces between the bulkheads with pillows, and my wife crawled in there and bucked. Not the worst riveting task on the project by a long shot...
 
I pulled a bench outside of the garage, then placed the empennage vertical on the bench and used straps to hold it in place--so it would not fall off. The empennage can only slide on so far due to the long skins along the baggage area. This allows a space for my wife then stand on a stool on the inside with a bucking bar. I bucked the rivets from the outside. I had the top skin completely clecoed in place before moving to the up right position.

Very easy and an uneventful task. i have a picture somewhere with her on the inside and her feet sticking out the bottom. Sort of funny.

cheer and happy bucking.
 
Riveting top skin

You can do the crawl into the tail cone if you have a helper. Rolling the skin up and holding it in place with duck tape will work. If you have slow build or even QB wings you will roll the skin up and rivet as you unroll it.

It is not a "tight" roll you just peel it back enough to form a curve.

Allan Stern
RV 14 QB
Getting ready to fiberglass canopy
 
Not a 14 but the 10 is not that much different in this area.

Here is what I did recently.... worked better than good!

IMG_4547.JPG


IMG_4553.JPG
 
A lot of good ideas. It proves yet again there is more than one way of accomplish a task. Thanks for the suggestions. I think I'll try the blankets on the concrete floor, foam on the inside, wife in the hole. She likes laying down.
 
I never took pics, but we hung ours from the ceiling in the garage. I stood inside and bucked while my partner stood on the outside. We used one of my kids to help hold it steady from the backside, but it was a piece of cake and we were done in no time.
Kerry
 
Did the same as Kerry. As well as a convenient way of accessing the rear fuse I thought there would be less chance of warping with no weight on the structure.
 
3x5 by 1/2 inch steel table. Backriveted most. I was able to reach and get the ones I couldn't back rivet with a gun and bar. With the top center section open I was able to back rivet the sides too. Goes really really quick.

mVPW24t.jpg
 
I also backrivited the top aft fuselage skin.

You can easily do the aft fuselage by yourself. I did. Long arms not needed.
 
Bob, that's a great idea. I'm at that point now in the build. It seems I could rivet using bucking bar from fore and aft toward the center as far as my arms will allow, then flip the fuse and back rivet the remainder. I used 3M double-sided tape on the overlapping joints, so it should all stay together nicely with the clecoes removed. I wish I could back rivet the whole plane...it comes out perfect.
 
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