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RV-9A: Project Entry

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Getting the side skin and the longerson lined up

Before I can drill any more holes into the firewall, I have to make sure that the longeron holes I drilled the day before still line up with the holes in the side skin. Apparently the weight of the firewall messes up the alignment. So the instructions say to temporary stick some rivets into the skin and into the longersons to force the alignment back into position. OK, head scratching time again. I needed some leverage here. The rivets weren't going to go into the holes without raising the firewall somehow. Then I remembered my adventures with the fuels tanks and forcing it into position with 1/8" clecos. I put some clecos into the holes in the forward end of the skin and into the longeron holes. They won't go all the way in because of the longerons. Then I simply pulled down on the clecos on the forward end. This pushed the longeron up enough to get the first rivet in. Then I just worked my way forward using the leverage of the forward clecos to force the longeron up.

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