This is going to span several days. It's a lot of work.
Set up to try to back-rivet the bottom skin against my steel plate. First set of rivets came out fine, but it does scratch the skin a bit. I wanted to also try out the large round bucking bar I bought specifically for back-riveting. Had to recruit the wife to help a bit. These came out awesome and no scratches on the skin. That's how I will proceed for as much as I can. That means I need a helper though. No problem because it is fun to work with the wife on the project. We developed a good flow pretty quickly which will be important for future dual riveting.
Got through most of the bottom stiffeners today, probably overall 50% if the bottom skin.
6/20 update: made a little more progress on the tail cone but not as much as I wanted to finish this weekend. The good news is that every rivet is perfect. The bad news is that it requires a partner and I only get to steal the wife away to the shop for 15 minute spurts at a time. Oh well, we can finish the bottom in the mornings before work. Kids are out of school now too so more time for pre-work plane building time.
Main reason I didn't get as much done this weekend was because it was Father's Day and Ben and I flew down for lunch with my dad. Almost more fun than driving rivets.