13 May 2024 - 1.3 hours
After getting the priming done on the skins and stiffeners, I went to work tonight back-riveting the stiffeners to the skins. Back-riveting is perhaps the easiest and most consistent (and loudest!) method of riveting and it goes very quickly. In fact, I think the action that took the longest was placing the rivets in their dimples.The first stiffener ready to get riveted.
After riveting, the flush heads are perfectly smooth and the shop heads are very consistent. The instructions say that regular tape doesn't work well for holding the rivets in while you flip the piece over for riveting, but I found my cheap 1" masking tape worked just fine. It peels off pretty much without issue. If there is a bit of tape stuck to the rivet head after riveting, it comes off with a solvent and rag quite nicely.
I finished riveting both skins tonight! Here the right skin is all done.
Next up is drilling the skins to the rudder skeleton.