I started riveting the fuselage skins today.

The first skin (F-828 tail spring skin) was a real pain in the butt because the tail spring mount takes up a lot of room inside that area, leaving little room for a bucking bar. I tried making a very small bucking bar from scrap steel, but it wasn't heavy enough, so it was tough to buck the rivets. I eventually figured out that I had a bucking bar that would work, so I could have saved the couple of hours I spent going to the scrap yard, and polishing up that useless bucking bar.

Here you see the tail spring skin, which covers the bottom end of the aft fuselage. You can see the end of the tail spring mount, where the tapered round tail spring fits into.

Here is the bucking bar that I eventually used. It is a pretty strange shape, but it worked great for this job. I found it at a used tool place in Wichita, and bought it on a whim, figuring I would need to get into some strange corners someday.