Alex's Vans RV-10 Build Log

Finishing up the remaining riveting from the firewall section of the plans, I finished riveting the rudder pedal support bracket to the firewall recess. These are tricky due to limited space within the recess for the rivet gun, but I was able to set all rivets using a 1" offset mushroom set. The rivet in the top corner of the recess was the hardest to set, but I taped some wood blocks to the recess to help prevent the mushroom set from wandering while running the rivet gun All rudder pedal brace rivets set in place With easy access to the rivet tails, shop heads formed well With this step taken care of, I'm calling the firewall section complete. I will still have to attach the stainless steel heat vents, but I'll do that later as I add additional components to the firewall. Time Taken:       0.3  hours  Dates:                    October 15 2025 Firewall Total Time:         ...

While I wait to get some help with riveting the bottom flanges of the fuse side skins, I decided to rivet together the rear seat vents, and attach the doublers to the mid fuse side skins. Rear seat vents riveted together using the pneumatic squeezer All vent parts lined up well While riveting the vent brackets to the doubler and skins, I placed a 1/8" piece of angle between the brackets to maintain the spacing when squeezing the rivets All double/bracket to skin rivets were set using a 1" no hole yoke which just fit through the opening Doubler/bracket riveting complete with all rivets in spec Left rear seat vent. All sides are flush with the skin except for the forward bottom corner of the vent which stick out less than 1/32" when pulled closed. I'll adjust this later after attaching hardware. Left side vent opened and sits well Right side vent lay perfectly flush with the skin on all sides after riveting Right side vent closed and nicely centered within the doubler ...

Final assembly and riveting of the fuse side skins began with backriveting the baggage floor angles and door shims to the mid fuse skins. Backriveting the baggage floor angle to the right mid fuse skin Shop heads formed well, and this skin is ready to be clecoed to the understructure Backriveting the baggage floor angle and shims to the left mid fuse skin. The aft most 7 holes do not get riveted at this time I then started clecoing the four fuselage skins to the understructure, starting with the mid skins and then the forward skins, making sure that the skins butt up against eachother over the center section bulkheads.  I also put a bead of 3M Fire Barrier silicone sealant along the rivet line of the forward skins that attaches to the firewall as I had done for the bottom skin. Bead of silicone sealant added prior to clecoing the skin to the firewall. After clecoing, the excess sealant was smoothed out with popsicle sticks to ensure that any gaps between the firewall flange and ski...