Jan 4 2003 - Everything was disassembled, deburred, and primed. The longerons were cut at the ends to final shape, all clearance notches finalized, and in general all the details were finalized prior to riveting. Some of the skins are fit in preparation for riveting.

Note - if you are going to install the floors with nutplates and screws, do yourself a favor - fit the floors and install the nutplates now, before the skins go on.

When I fit the forward and mid side skins, I was worried about the close quarter riveting of the overlap joint and the spar. I decided to rivet these two skins (and the doubler) together on the bench prior to fitting to the structure. The top forward rivet has a spacer so that the F850 skin can be inserted.

I also installed some of the skin to floor rib rivets that I could get to before the bottom skins are fit.

Here is a view looking down where you can see (if you look carefully) the spacer for the F850 skin. It is on the rivet just ahead of the spar spacer block. I think doing these rivets on the bench turned out to be a good idea. I just hate the thought of damaging the spar with the bucking bars in such a close area.

Rivet session 1 results. The bottom aft skins and LH rear side skin are installed. All the parts are fitting well, with no gaps as we riveted.

Jan 5 2003 - Rivet session 2 over, with the RH aft side skin fit as well as some mid cabin riveting. Next session will focus on the mid cabin bottom and side skins.

While waiting for Jim to help with the next session, I returned to the gear boxes. I fit all the parts with clecoes in every hole. I then installed about four rivets into each F802A and F802B bulkhead where they join the WD822 weldment. With these rivets in place, I then removed the assemblies whole and installed all the remaining rivets in the fwd and aft bulkheads, WD822 weldment, and 802G and H angles on the bench.

The riveted assemblies were then installed back into the fuelage for riveting to the side skins and aft Z channel.

This picture is an overall view of the riveted boxes back in the fuselage.

Another view of the riveted boxes.

A closeup view showing which rivets could be installed on the bench. It was *much* easier on the bench than doing this in the fuelage as instructed. The initial rivets shot in the fuselage held the alignment nicely while the remaining rivets are installed.

Those initial rivets can be cleaned up on the bench as well if the results were less than perfect.

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