Damazio family's RV-10 project: Tailcone dimpling and riveting

After primer, I started dimpling the parts:

A LOT of holes to dimple

I riveted the nutplates in place:

Nutplates riveted in place

NACA valve nutplates riveted in place

I then riveted the frames and bulkheads together:

Forward frames riveted

Aft bulkheads riveted

I also riveted the static line T bracket in place:

Static line T angle bracket

I attached the Panduit conduit holders to the frames:

Panduit conduit holders attached to frames

I cut the NACA vent doublers from .040 aluminum:

Cutting NACA vent doublers

then drilled their holes and match-drilled into the skin:

NACA vent drilled in place with doubler

I riveted the NACA valve bracket to the top stiffener:

Riveted NACA valve bracket

After I assembled the APU port covers (put the retaining washers to hold the studs), I also had a "oops" moment when I realized that the washer did not fit inside the countersunk portion of the hole:

Oops - it doesn't sit flush!

The solution was to use a step drill to get rid of the countersunk border altogether, opening up the hole for the washer to fit through:

Enlarged hole for retaining washer

With this, the cover plate now sits flush:

APU cover plate sits flush now

Camloc receptacle height for APU port adjusted

APU port cover test fit

I also realized that I hadn't primed the "exterior" part of the bottom skin which actually goes inside the side skins. I marked those and will apply primer there as well (as soon as weather permits).

Finally, I'm trying to decide whether to rivet the avionics rails to the stiffeners before or after they're attached to the skin (either way, the second set of rivets is harder to set):