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

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