Roll Bar Continued - No Foolin..

The Roll Bar is looking good but of course is taking longer than I expected.  Over the last few days, I was able to rivet the front 1/2 (forward half) with my rivet squeezer while the bar remained clamped to the table.  After measuring the width of the bar, the squeezer rested at a perfect height on the table and I fired away at the solid rivets riveting the internal straps into place.   After that I added the other 1/2 (rear half) of the roll bar and through working with my hands and smacking with a rubber mallet got the holes to align perfectly.  I then inserted all the pop rivets in place before riveting to make sure everything was truly in line.  While clamped and measured width yet again I pulled all the rivets.  I removed the clamps the roll bar sprung slightly tighter (narrower) by about 1/32 of an inch..  Just barely, but it did move..   I rushed to fit it on the plane to see its width and with the exterior angles in place it fits almost perfectly.  Probably about 1/32nd off, but I am sure that much flex can be taken up by the bolts when torqued...   I am happy...

After that I started working the attach angles.  I clamped them in place at the bottom of the roll bar per plans and drilled them for the keeper rivets.  Clamping them was tricky and no pictures since I wasn't proud of how I did it, but through a combination of clamps and hand holding while drilling I got the job done.  Each Side turned out exactly the same so I am assuming I did a good job.

Then I sat the structure on the fuse to measure height..  It looked really cool, but was almost 1/4 inch high at the center.  Lots of filing and fitting of the role bar to lower it appropriately.

One thing I am trying is I left the roll bar legs long where some people cut them to plans.  Basically my thought is I will trim only the areas that interfere leaving the other areas long which will end up covering more of the eyesore that typically is exposed when this piece is complete..  Well see how low I can get the actual roll bar exterior to cover the mounting angles..