RV-9A: Firewall - 3/29/2008
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 Riveted on the Aux Fuel Pump doubler plate
I decided to go again with the backriveting method on this dude. It seems to have worked out OK.
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 Here's the flip side
I also went ahead and installed the 2 nutplates on the back of the firewall.
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 OK... Toy Time!!
Yea, I know I'm being a wuss with the this new pneumatic cleco gun. But I jes' wanted one! I got to try one out when I was helping Bruce (Boomer) Pauley on his RV-7A wings and fell in love with it. I think it will come in handy when I screw up and realize that everything I just clecoed together has to come apart because I forgot something.
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 Toy #2!
I should have gotten this set a long time ago. I noticed when using the pneumatic rivet squeezer that if the gap between the rivet sets get too large, the squeezer refuses to squeeze, especially on the really long rivets. So the answer is to get smaller rivet sets to decrease that gap so the squeezer can do its thing.
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 Squeezin' time! (pneumatic that is...)
The head scratcher with using a pneumatic squeezer is how get the damn thing over the humps to get to the rivets. Fortunately here, Van's has provided an handy gap to get the squeezer to "cruise on down the line" on the bottom rivets of the firewall. Piece of cake!
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 The same on the side rivets
The gap here is a little smaller, but I was still able to get that puppy in there to do the firewall side rivets.
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 One tricky spot
There are some bottom rivets between the F-601 angle pieces that stop access to these rivets from the side. Time to cheat! I removed the bottom rivet set and slide that the pneumatic squeezer into position and then put the rivet set back into the bottom hole and was able to squeezer these rivets.
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 Now for the rest of the 1/8 rivets. What to do?
First I tried a couple 1/8" rivets using the backriveting method with the steel plate from behind. While it did protect the metal from any dents, then flat rivet heads did not set well in the dimples like I think they should. It bugged me when I ran my finger over the firewall and felt the bumps of the slightly protruding 1/8" rivets. I drilled those dudes out and decided to go with the old mushroom head and bucking bar method.
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 The good, the bad and the damn ugly
The stainless steel firewall is not like aluminum sheetmetal when riveting with the mushroom head on the rivet gun. Aluminum sheet metal flexes nicely and moves with the riveting gun and doesn't (usually) show any sign of dents after riveting. Stainless steel sheetmetal is totally different! It jes' luvs to dent! So, now matter how careful I was, I could see the imprint of the stiffener from behind in the firewall around the rivet. Also, I wandered off the rivet on a couple of sessions and made nice dents in the firewall. It's not really that bad, but it still bugs me. The weird part is that on those dents, I was able to push a good part of those "off the mark" dents out with my finger from behind. Now all the rivets are nicely seated and strong.
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 Voila!
It's nice to get this guy done!
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 Here's the flip side
On to the F-704 Bulkhead!
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