next step in the building of the tanks was to finish the interior, fuel inlet, drain, vent and fuel pick-up.

From Pete and Tad's RV-9a Build

From Pete and Tad's RV-9a Build

From Pete and Tad's RV-9a Build

now the tanks have been drilled and prepped we moved onto riveting the ribs and stiffeners in place. there is as much prep to get the tank ready as there is to do the riveting. all surfaces where the proseal touches must be CLEAN so that is where most time is spent. here we are partially through back-riveting the stiffeners on.

From Pete and Tad's RV-9a Build

we managed to get the stiffeners done then moved onto the ribs.. doing 2 ribs on the first session then doing 3 on the next one.

From Pete and Tad's RV-9a Build

method to mix proseal for the tanks

From Pete and Tad's RV-9a Build

applying proseal to the ribs before inserting them into the tank skin, then each cleaned rivet is put in place and riveted.

From Pete and Tad's RV-9a Build

From Pete and Tad's RV-9a Build

No pics for a while but we have been working away on it. The right wing is almost to the same stage as the left now. Pro-seal or 'black death' will be happening pretty soon i think! Making the W919 splice strip.

From Pete and Tad's RV-9a Build

From Pete and Tad's RV-9a Build

Dimple W919 and nutplates... used NAS rivets to attach these!

From Pete and Tad's RV-9a Build

Z-brackets to attach fuel tank.

From Pete and Tad's RV-9a Build

From Pete and Tad's RV-9a Build

From Pete and Tad's RV-9a Build

From Pete and Tad's RV-9a Build

Countersinking the fuel tank skin.

From Pete and Tad's RV-9a Build

From Pete and Tad's RV-9a Build

From Pete and Tad's RV-9a Build

From Pete and Tad's RV-9a Build

From Pete and Tad's RV-9a Build

From Pete and Tad's RV-9a Build

Fuselage begins

Now work on the fuselage begins! lots of little parts to mate up with the stainless firewall.
There are some small holes in the firewall recess that will need to be filled with proseal but that can be done when the engine is mounted and all the other holes get sealed.

Right Wing Skins Prep

Well after a rather long delay on the true building of the RV due to moving houses, tools, getting the old place ready for tenants, I'm back at it.
Matched the Wing Doubler W927 to the W902 Inboard Top Skin first and then clecoed it all to the wing structure along with the W903 outboard top skin(overlapping the inboard skin). I managed to get at least half the holes drilled and marked(so i know what's been drilled to a #40).
Wing Doubler before going onto the structure

From Pete and Tad's RV-9a Build

Wing Doubler sitting approx 9/16" behind the top skin just clearing the front spar

From Pete and Tad's RV-9a Build

Cleco Skins

From Pete and Tad's RV-9a Build

Drilled #40 holes and marked

From Pete and Tad's RV-9a Build

From Pete and Tad's RV-9a Build

DuckWorks Bracket

After cutting the bracket to the correct length and cleaning up all the edges I managed to get the K1000 nut-plates installed. I used the NAS1097 rivets again for this and light countersunk the inner ribs for the factory head.

From Pete and Tad's RV-9a Build

From Pete and Tad's RV-9a Build

From Pete and Tad's RV-9a Build

From Pete and Tad's RV-9a Build

Left Wing Landing Light

Tad and I managed to get the landing light marked and cut-out of the leading edge skin. We used the sanding drum to smooth out the radius and knock down any high spots, used a straight file to take the waves out, then a bit of scotchbrite by hand and then on the die-grinder to make it very smooth.

From Pete and Tad's RV-9a Build

From Pete and Tad's RV-9a Build

From Pete and Tad's RV-9a Build

W919

Finished getting all the nut-plates on the W919 Attach piece. Using NAS1097 rivets of course!

From Pete and Tad's RV-9a Build

From Pete and Tad's RV-9a Build

Prepare the W919 Attach Strip

I drilled the screw holes out to #19 size after getting the nut-plates #40 holes drilled. Deburred all the holes then dimpled just the #19 with a #8 die for the screws. I was still undecided on the method of installed the AD426 rivet... either Dimple or Countersink the W919 strip. After doing some reading i'm going with the NAS1097 shear rivet which is actually the preferred method. Using these rivets i will just need to do some light countersinking of the W919 piece and nothing to the nut-plate! The reason i can do this is because the NAS1097 rivet has a much lower profile head and the W919 is thick enough to allow a relatively small countersink.
Test material, notice the smaller head on the bottom left rivet. The Shank diameter of both of these rivets are the same.

From Pete and Tad's RV-9a Build

From Pete and Tad's RV-9a Build

Countersink #40 on Main Spar Left Wing

Tad stopped by on Monday to help finish off all the Left Wing skins. Also drilled the nut-plates onto the W-919 splice strip that connects the leading edge skin to the fuel tank skin. We also spent some time lightly countersinking(after dimpling) the rear spar on both sides to allow the dimples in the skin to fit better.
Over the last couple of days I've spent a couple of hours countersinking the #40 holes on the main spar to accept the skin dimples. With the main spar being a lot thicker than the rear spar there was no dimpling necessary... just full countersinks with the micro-stop on the drill.
They are all done now:)

From Pete and Tad's RV-9a Build