I started dimpling the tailcone skins today. Lots of dimples.
One area of confusion I encountered in the plans is whether to dimple the forward-most holes on the side skins that align with the front ends of the j-channels. The plans ask you not to dimple any holes associated with the F-1006 bulkhead which would include these holes.
These will eventually need to be dimpled (I have a copy of the tailcone attach section of the plans) but I cannot see any way to get a dimple die in there at that point given that rivets will be set in the stiffeners up to this point (unless the skin is meant to be dimpled through the stiffener). I have a question out to Van’s builder support and have left those holes undimpled for now.
I dimpled both side skins first.
I then dimpled the bottom skin.
When I started dimpling the aft top skin I realized that the plans do not ask you to add a break to the overlap like they have you do in other areas. I’m not sure if this is intentional because these skins are thicker or if it is just assumed that the builder should know to do this. I am going to follow up with Van’s before dimpling the holes along the sides of the skins.