Stabilator: An Orgy of Squeezed Rivets!

To make my points, there are 56 squeezed rivets on the picture and it's only a small part of the stabilator:

Some are barely visible because they are countersunk but the biggies around the two big holes of the counterbalance brackets are AN470-AD4, they are arm and wrist killers... unless you use my improved Avery Hand Squeezer.
Besides the riveting, this is the first really complex component I have been building. It takes a while to gather all parts from the inventory. Although my inventory is well organized, the original packaging in sub-kits by VAN is not intended at regrouping the parts belonging to a specific component and you have to fish from several sub-kits packages. It may take a while to dig out a component buried deep and without the check of the inventory a delivery time strongly encouraged by VAN, you would be sometimes tempted to deem a component missing but you know it's here as you did not find anything missing in the inventory.
So far I have been through Page 09-01 to 09-04 without major issues. As much as instructions are held to a minimum by VAN, I am in haw by the accuracy and level of details provided in the drawings. You better watch carefully these drawings because some little details are the key to avoiding costly mistakes. Even if VAN designers cleverly key some components to prevent mistakes (i.e. some holes are a bit offset and will not match if your part is presented upside down or flipped 180deg) it is still possible to mis-position parts that have symmetrical shapes like the Spar Box Assembly.
I would recommend novice builders (I am one too) to:
- Go slow in this section, check and recheck your work against drawings
- As usual VAN instructions are short and every word is important: read slowly and make sure you understand because if you don't you are on your way to disappointment later
- In doubt, go to other builder's web sites/Blogs and research the RV-12 - VAF Forum
If nothing worked, ask the RV-12 VAF Forum a question and in the rare case you are not satisfied by the answers you still can call VAN's support.
At this point in the build, I have not called VAN's yet (although I was tempted a few times and later found that I would have looked a fool if I had done it!)