Tailcone riveting progress

The tailcone is finally coming together for good.

I trimmed the hex posts to 2 5/64", which was the exact height to get the APU port's bottom flush with the doubler, then re-finished the trimmed ends - not as good as the original, but good enough:

APU port hex post finish (mine on the left, original on the right)

We then primed the "bottom" edges of the bottom skin which actually go inside the side skins:

Inside portion of the bottom skin's bottom side

then removed the vinyl from the rivet rows:

Vinyl removed from bottom skin rivet holes

Vinyl removed from the side skin rivet holes

I match-drilled the antenna doublers to the bottom skin:

Aft antenna doubler

Forward antenna doubler

then riveted them and the APU port doubler:

Test fitting the ADS-B antenna

Riveted antenna doubler and APU port doubler

Riveted antenna doublers

Before riveting the APU port doublers, I had also riveted the camloc receptacles to them:

Riveted APU port doubler and cover

APU port cover in place

Then came the time to cleco the whole thing together again, for final riveting (except for the F-1006 frame, still with vinyl on):

It all comes back together

Like others, I was initially confused by the order of the bottom skins shown in the drawings, which suggest that the aft bottom skin should go outside of the forward bottom skin:

Rivet goes on aft bottom skin? Nope.

Thanks once again to VAF, I realized that wasn't the case - that one rivet does go on the forward bottom skin.

For the actual inside riveting, I found that's incredibly easier to do with help from another person, and I chose to back-rivet most of it that way:

Wife (underneath) holding the bucking bar while I back-rivet from the top

So far, I have the side and bottom stiffeners mostly riveted:

Right side riveting progress

Left side riveting progress

Inside view of the riveted stiffeners

With this, I riveted the first of the avionics rails to the bottom stiffener, using CCPQ-43 rivets:

Avionics rail riveted to the right bottom stiffener

I also riveted the bellcrank ribs to their angles and the conduit holders:

Bellcrank ribs with angles and conduit holders riveted

as well as the avionics shelf nutplates (I added both the #6 and #8 nutplates so I have more options later):

Avionics shelf with nutplates riveted

I'll likely spend 2 or 3 more weekends riveting before I'm done.

Time lapse:

Total tailcone time: 168.7h
Total tailcone rivets: 771