6/5/2006
As several builders have told me...the ribs are much more of a pain than the stiffeners were to seal and rivet. The major pain is the rivets are so slippery from the sealant, that it's hard to keep the bucking bar on the shop head. Didn't have any problem with damaging the skin, but several rivets had to be drilled due to a slipped bar. My dad came over to help me figure this out tonight, and I hope it gets easier as we work along. We worked for an hour and got one rib done. We started with the second rib from the outboard side, per the instructions. It's easier to get to the rivets this way. However, all subsequent ribs will have more restricted access, except the inboard and outboard one, which can be done with the squeezer.
The outside came out good, and I'm happy with it. Hopefully it stays that way.
My dad only had an hour to help tonight, so I got set up for the next rib, which we should be able to do tomorrow. Maybe if we get better at this, we'll be able to set two ribs in an hour!! HA!
2.0 hours