I riveted the rear floors into place. Solid rivets are used along the flanges. The rivets along the outboard side are pretty challenging to buck as it is very hard to get a hand down there and hold the bucking bar at the same time. Thankfully, all of them set well the first time.
There is one rivet on the aft flange of each floor that has no space to set the shop head (the side of the rivet is touching the rib prior to bucking it). I decided that there was no way I was going to set it properly so I opted to use a blind rivet in this hole instead. I’m not sure what the intent is here but no call-out is made in the plans. From what I can tell, there would be no way to set the shop head properly.
I got a really helpful tip from Van’s builder support on a prior call: when using an offset rivet set, remove the metal retention spring and use self-fusing tape instead. That keeps the offset set from rotating. Using the offset set now feels like using a straight set. Much, much easier to control.
After getting the solid rivets set, I made quick work of the blind rivets.
There are small openings at the seat rail supports so I covered those with some painters tape to keep debris out for now.
I then covered the floors with cardboard to protect them from scratches and dings.
