Into the fray we go. Time to start final assembly and riveting the tailcone together. I know there are all kinds of opinions on the “right” way to rivet, but I elected to backrivet the tailcone where I could. This was pretty easy honestly and just required me to cut a slot in my carpet to allow me to mount my back-rivet plate on my benchtop. Only hazard is making sure you don’t try to backrivet off the end of the plate! With that in mind I did take things slowly.
Started off assembling the parts just like I did earlier in the chapter but I put the clecos on the inside of the part. It looks weird, but allows you to back rivet. Once assembled, it’s a lot of using rivet tape (or plain removable tape), flipping the tailcone over and making sure you are lined up on the rivet plate, and rivet the part. By the nature of how you backrivet you are putting pressure on the parts to keep them snug together while you rivet them together. When I did run out of room to back rivet, I ended up using the small PVC tubing trick to apply pressure to the parts as I set the rivet. For the most part that worked very well. I did end up drilling out a few of the rivets (as shown in the video) but it’s not a big deal. I’m also continuing to improve my riveting skills and have been VERY happy with how all of my rivets have been setting. So far all solo work, but I’m sure I’ll need to get assistance in the next video or so as I complete the riveting of the bottom skins.