After finishing up installing the nutplates on the left side skin, the vent doubler and brackets that were Clecoed onto the right F-1270 skin were riveted in place. That was followed by riveting together the two air vent doors that were Clecoed together yesterday. The vent door assemblies were riveted with the pneumatic rivet squeezer using AN426AD3-4 rivets.
Using the pneumatic squeezer to rivet one of the
vent door assemblies together with AN426AD3-4 rivets.
The plans instruct the builder to install the vent door using an AN525-10R7 screw … which there were issues with. A few months ago while prepping the parts for the air vent assembly, the plans instruct the builder make sure the screw will fit into the slot on the F-1087A&B parts. However they failed to mention to ALSO make sure the screw will fit into the hole on the F-1086A&B vent brackets. After riveting the brackets for the right air vent in place, discovered the unthreaded shank of the screw would not fit in the hole. A few strokes with a tiny rat tail file fixed the problem … but it would have been a whole lot easier had I checked the fit prior to installing the part as I usually try to do.
The plans show the AN525-10R7 screw going in from the bottom with the locknut on top. I don’t like the idea of having a screw mounted that way so installed mine from the top … should the nut ever come off, the screw will not fall out and possibly allow the vent door to blow off the aircraft. I do understand why Vans shows the screw installed from below is because when the instrument panel base is installed, there is no room for a screwdriver so there is better access from below. However, my 90 degree offset Philips works well here and will also allow access from either inside underneath the instrument panel base or from outside through the air vent. Because future access will not really be an issue, I placed the head of the AN525-10R7 screw in from the top placing my faith in gravity.
Half of the RV-12’s air conditioning system …
the right air vent is now completed.
The final task accomplished for the day was to prepare the F-1270R side skin for dimples along the top row of rivet holes which will rivet onto the F-1255R longeron. Using a solder iron, the blue protective film was removed from the outer edges of the side skin, the top row of rivet holes were then deburred and dimpled using the pneumatic squeezer accessorized with the 120 degree Cleaveland dimple dies. The Cleaveland dies will work well for the Van’s CS4-4 flush pop rivets that will go into these rivet holes. Because free horizontal space is nonexistent in the shop, felt it would be best to temporarily raise the F-1270-R skin with Clecos about 6” higher than the longeron to allow dimpling the upper row of rivet holes while the side skin is secured to the fuselage.
