Hey!  It's true!  Pictures don't lie.  I got Jessica to come into the shop and use the squeezer ("GOSH DAD!  That's HEAVY!") to dimple some skins.  I think she dug it.

Cleaned the parts up with MEK using the instructions provided by the friendly folks and fellow builders at www.vansairforce.net forums.  I wasn't sure how the MEK was to be applied, and got an answer immediately.  Thanks, guys!

Ready to prime with the Sherwin Williams 988 GBP rattle-can self-etching primer.  I know, I know, the parts should be primed before putting them together for final assembly, and they will be in real life, but I wasn't going to prime this thing at all, then changed my mind at the last minute... I wanted the practice.  Notice the ribs?  Ouch... riveted facing the wrong direction... I see that now, but didn't see it then, at the time....

And that's that.

While the primer dried, I cut up a 6" piece of aluminum angle per the plans to build a fixture (continued below).

I was impressed with how quickly the parts dried and how well they turned out.  The primer isn't as hard as epoxy-based primers, so you do have to be careful not to scratch it, which is almost impossible while bucking rivets inside the skin, so some small touch up can be needed after driving rivets.  But, once it's closed up, this should be more than adequate to prevent corrosion of the internal structure.  I haven't yet decided if I am going to primer the entire inside of the skins, or just where I've drilled holes or where two pieces of metal meet.  I just did everything here so I could get some practice on how the primer is applied and holds up.  After all, it is a practice kit...

The brackets I cut above were then drilled on my drill press to allow them to be connected to an 11.5" two-by-four.  Clamp one end down to the workbench....

And then you're supposed to be able to clamp the spar to the top of the fixture... and you could, if these ribs (already riveted) were pointing the right direction.  This is when I finally realized what was going on.  Oh well, I would rather practice drilling out rivets NOW on this practice piece than LATER on the real plane (although, I'm certain that will need to happen there, too).

See the plans?  Flanges face outboard, not inboard.

Okay, for all you non-airplane-builder types, here's how you drill out a rivet.  Put a drill bit of the proper size in your drill, then hand-turn it a few times to create a dimple right in the middle of the rivet head....

(And here's a question for you airplane-builder-types:  one manual I had said to use a drill bit one size smaller than that used for the rivet hole, another manual said use the same size drill bit.  Which is right?  I tried both, both worked.  I think you have more chance of enlarging the underlying hole using the same size drill bit, if you're not exactly centered on the rivet head.  Email me and let me know what you do...)

Then, you slowly drill down through the head just to about where the top of the head ends (at the skin).  At this point, a pin-punch is placed in the hole you just drilled, and...

... you bend it back and bust the head off the rivet.

The head of the rivet will break right off, leaving the rivet shank and the driven side in the hole you had previously drilled.  This photo shows quite clearly how "bucking" a rivet causes the shank to swell up and fill the hole.  You'll know it, too, when you try to drive out that shank--it's in there tight!!

To prevent deforming the metal on the backside of the piece, it is important to "back up" the shop side of the rivet with a block of wood before you pound out the rest of the rivet.  If you didn't do this, the rivet would pull and distort the metal when you pound out the rivet.

Make sure the block of wood is up against the rivet, then place your pin punch on the exposed rivet shank and beat the living **** out of it until it pops out.  I was surprised how hard you had to hit it!

And there you go.  The rivet will end up in the block of wood, looking like a bullet lodged in a tree, and if you did it right your original hole will be the same size, relatively undamaged, and ready for a new rivet.

I flipped the end ribs around, and found I now had the added benefit of my squeezer being able to reach those two rivets, something it couldn't do when the rib had its flanges facing inboard.  NOW, I could use the fixture... you use some cleco clamps to hold the piece for you in a vertical position so you can buck the rivets on the spar-to-skin line.

I used some tape to hold the rivets in place... I have rivet tape but didn't want to waste it on the practice kit.  Scotch Magic Tape worked fine, bent one of the ends over to give a little "tab" for easy removal.

After the first side was riveted on, you cleco the other skin in place and spread the two skins, reach down inside with a bucking bar, and drive the rivets.  This would have been much easier with two people.  Their isn't a good bucking bar for this in the starter kit, though I did find one that would work.  The hardest part is that, in this vertical orientation, the rivet gun wants to slide downwards when you push inwards.... and when it slides down, it slides off the firm backing of the spar channel and leaves nice (NOT!) smilies on the skin.

On the second skin, I put a two-by-four and a couple pieces of cardboard across the clamps....

So the rivet gun would have a base to sit on exactly the same height as the rivet centerline, so the gun could not slide down.  This worked, but on the last set of rivets (after I pullled those clecos out), I laid the entire workpiece flat on the bench, reached inside with the bucking bar and used the gun in a vertical orientation, rather than horizontal (as the jig necessitated), and that worked MUCH better... I'd forgo the whole jig and just do it that way next time.

All that is left now (on another day) is to rivet the trailing edge and roll the leading edge... and then I can start on the real empennage.