Started riveting ribs to spars - 7 hours

I was extremely eager to get the ribs riveted to the spars, yet very concerned. I really did not want to mess this one up. I was struggling to figure out how best to do this without a bucking partner. After some thinking, I decided to try to back rivet similar to the way Wirejock (Larry Larson) shows in his build log.

I set up with a sponge under the spar and the back rivet plate with the bucking bar under the rivet that is to be set. This allowed me to get the parts pressed tight together as I shot the rivet.
 

It produces very nice shop heads.

I had ordered a selection of long rivet sets a couple of weeks while ago from ATS as I really did not want to use a double offset rivet set on these (I really don't like the double offset....really tricky. For me it's a tool that I only pull out when I must). I found the 10" long rivet set is the best in this situation. I had taped the rivet set to the gun rather than use the spring as there is less potential for scrapping the ribs when I rivet.

After riveting, on close inspection. I have some spider cracks in the anodizing especially where rivets are set through the Spar web, less so where they are set through the doubler. At first glance it caught me off guard, but a quick search of the Vans Airforce forums shows that this is extremely common and is not anything to be concerned with. (It just affects the anodizing finish and not the aluminum). The forums are clear...it's ok, build on. Update, I called Vans to double check that this was not going to be an issue and they confirmed that it is alright. Build on

Just before I decided to call it a night, I slipped of the rivet on Right Wing rib #4 and put a smiley in the rib. Grrr...Every thing was running smooth. I decided to remove the rib and replace it with new. I have to put in a big order soon for more cleco's, conduit, flop tubes, etc. so I will order the replacement rib then.