Alex's Vans RV-10 Build Log

With the side skins (almost) completely riveted on, I moved on to working on the landing gear mounts. This involves match drilling a few holes through the side skins, side plates and doublers directly into the landing gear mount flanges.  Steel drill templates are provided to ensure that the holes are correctly positioned, and to help guide the drill bits while drilling through the 1/8" steel. As suggested in the plans, I added some foil tape to the surface of the steel drill guides to make it easier to align the drill bit correctly for drilling. Drill templates clecoed to the side skin on the left side. 7 holes need to be match drilled to 1/4" diameter through the landing gear mount weldments After clecoing the side plate doubler and drill templates in place, but prior to placing the landing gear mount, I decided to cut away the corner of the center section rib flange using a hacksaw to make it easier to slide the landing gear mount downwards. I then inserted the left landin...

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 ...