Section 6 - Vertical Stabilizer (finished! ... well, almost)

Over the last couple of days, I plowed through riveting the doublers and hinges to the spars, the ribs to the front spar, the skin to the assembly, and the rear spar to the final assembly.  I had to drill out a few bad rivets, but otherwise, it was fairly straightforward.  BUT, there is ONE darn rivet that even my thin tungsten bucking bar, on its side, can't buck (FYI, it's the forward-most rivet where the skin attaches to the top spar). I guess I'll be putting in an order for a thin yoke with Cleaveland Aircraft Tool!

Aside from that one rivet, the rest of Section 6 is complete.  In total, it took 31.1 hrs to complete a whopping 5 pages ... and that doesn't count most of the reading, planning, and cogitation!  This must be a slow-poke record.  Well, I'm taking my time.  Here are a few pics as I riveted everything together:

The pneumatic squeezer, with adjustable set to rivet, made quick work of the AN470AD4-sized rivets ... now, I just wish it was that easy to use the squeezer on the skin-to-spar AN426 rivets!

The pneumatic squeezer with a longeron yoke (the 3" standard yoke is in my hand squeezer):

Completed rear spar:

First skin-to-front spar rivet line. Note - adhere to the plans exactly as Van's states, so you can rivet the internal front spar and center rib FIRST:

Aaaaand, it's done (minus that one rivet):