F-1078, Page 10-20 Question

OK, so I am picking up where the previous builder of my -10 left off. The F-1078 bottom skin has been riveted to the F-1007 and F-1008 frames but not to the F-1073 side skins. The rivet line along the bottom left and right for the side-to-bottom joint is dimpled all along all three skins, except for where the F-1006 bulkhead is (as expected per plans) but the next hole back from the bulkhead attachment is not dimpled in the F-1073 side skins, but is dimpled in the F-1078 bottom skin. Pictured here:




At no point in the plans can I find an instruction to dimple these holes. I have looked ahead to the fuselage-tailcone attach section and can't find it there either. In fact, there is no instruction anywhere to dimple the F-1078 skin holes along these lines, but of course for flush rivets to be installed here, they have to be. They are dimpled on my F-1078 skin except the ones I noted. Is this skin supplied dimpled from the factory?

I think I might see what is going on here, since the rivet sheet (page 10-25) shows no rivets in these holes during the tailcone construction, but I am still confused about what happens to these holes eventually, if anything.


On Page 32-4, Step 7 says to match drill holes from the bottom fuselage skin into F-1078, and those appear to line up with these two holes I'm asking about. There is an instruction on page 32-5 (step 4) to dimple these holes in F-1078, but no reference is made to the aforesaid two holes. In fact, on the rivet diagram on page 32-6, there appears to be no overlap between the F-1077 and F1078 skins in the area of these holes.


Do these holes simply never get riveted?

I think I noticed the same thing on mine this weekend. You may be better off just dimpling it now. If that's the hole I'm thinking of, I didn't notice it until I had the tailcone cleco'd to the fuse, so I had to get my tight-fit dimple vise grips out to do it.

clutch22 said:

I think I noticed the same thing on mine this weekend. You may be better off just dimpling it now. If that's the hole I'm thinking of, I didn't notice it until I had the tailcone cleco'd to the fuse, so I had to get my tight-fit dimple vise grips out to do it.

Click to expand...

Wow, thanks very much for the response. Any chance you could post some close up pics of the area to help me see what eventually gets done here? If you don't have a way to post them, if you can email them I'd be glad to host them on my site.

Thanks again!

Sure thing!
The right is forward, left is aft. Does this picture help?

Thanks very much!

If I interpret that correctly, I should not only dimple, but rivet that hole now. Would you agree? It appears it doesn't do anything but attach F-1078 to F1073 (L&R).

Just a question: did the F-1078 skin come dimpled from the factory, and/or did I miss seeing in the plans the instruction to dimple those rows? I read as carefully as I could and did a text search in the PDFs for that part number and never saw an instruction to dimple. It is obvious that those holes need dimpling at some point (flush rivets), but in this case, where there is one hole to be left undimpled for the later tailcone attach step, it would have helped my understanding to specifically call it out with the exception of the one common to F-1006.

Also, what is the black stripe to the left of the picture? Just a shadow on the bottom skin?

Yeah, you can dimple it now. If you follow the plans, a rivet is called for at that location on page 32-5, step 7. Might as well just wait till then to rivet.

... And in regards to the black stripe, I'm not sure what you are referring to. Maybe you're looking at some primer. When I primed my lower t/c skin, I also primed the area of it that would be overlapped by the side skin.

clutch22 said:

... And in regards to the black stripe, I'm not sure what you are referring to. Maybe you're looking at some primer. When I primed my lower t/c skin, I also primed the area of it that would be overlapped by the side skin.

Click to expand...

That explains it. Thanks again, I really appreciate the help!