3 whole days before my hardware package was even supposed to ship from Aircraft Spruce, the dang thing arrived.

What does that mean for me? A BUILD LUNCH!

Over lunch today, I sorted the #6 screws and nutplates, along with some AN3 bolts and three #40 cobalt drill bits.

I immediately grabbed my nutplate “jig” and plopped it into one of the 9/64″ holes I drilled for the #6 screws.

Then drill one ear to #40, cleco, then the other.

Here’s an action shot!

With all the holes drilled, I freehanded the countersink for 1097 rivets and got to riveting.

Lucky you, I paused about 3/4 the way through to grab this shot. The other side is complete, and here I am riveting half of every nutplate in.

Finally, after all the nutplates were installed, I grabbed the now plentiful stash of #6 screws and attached.

1.0 hour. 16 rivets per side, 32 rivets total.