Aren't you in UPT right now? How on earth do you have time to build an RV while you're in UPT?
Several companies market kits for specific airplanes. Personally, I'd rather just put together what I want. I'm one who believes you can never have enough cleco clamps. Ever. Every kind, every size. Get on ebay and buy every one you can. Get some quality rivet guns that tease and feather well. I hate, with a passion, cheap rivet guns that are either blowing air and nothing else when the trigger is squeezed, or that are full out...nothing in between.
If you are serious about good pneumatic tools, Sioux is the name to go after. ATS (aircraft tooling supply) is the cheapest. Chicago pneumatic tools are about in the middle. Get good files, lots of them, to include a couple sets of jewlers files. Get all three metal snips (straight, left, right), and a good nibbler. Get a good drill, and have plenty of extra bits. Not just standard sizes, not just #30 bits for #4 rivets, but #29 for drilling them back out again...and you will. I'd go for a full set of numbered bits and then get bulk supplies of extra bits. Get more than a few bucking bars. You can never have enough bucking bars, and the darndest thing is that you can never find the right bar for the right job. Also true is the fact that you'll buy ten bars and use one or two of them 90% of the time.
Even though the plans don't call for it, consider alodining everything inside your aircraft, and shooting every rivet wet. Use PRC for all your joints, especially any lap joints. A slight bit more weight, but no shifting, no cracking from rivet holes or faying surfaces, no fretting corrosion. I dont like to shoot dry rivets. No smoking rivets, either. Get a rivet cutter for properly timming the rivets, and a rivet depth gauge. A hole spacer is a good idea, along with a metal ruler, etc.
Buy the kits, but realize that you may want more than what is there. I recommend your own air compressor, and don't go with a little one. You'll find the compressor running continuously if you're using the rivet gun much, certainly with a drill or die grinder. Speaking of which, get both the straight and angled die grinder, a plam drill, and you'll find a small 90 degree drill very useful. Not to mention rivet countersinks, die dimplers, etc. Back to that compressor, get at least a 30 gallon compressor but bigger is always better. A band saw is useful, as are metal brakes and shears. You can pick up some smaller reasonably priced equipment from harbor freight that will do what you want it to do. A good vise, an anvil, and a bench grinder are really must-haves in any shop...even if you're doing just one airplane.
Something else I find that is almost invalueable is a belt sander. One with the belt surface and a side disc. I use them for everything from light grinding to sharpening phenolic scrapers, edging or breaking edges on aluminum parts, etc. Very handy.
Buy a good toolbox with plenty of drawers to hold everything. Plan on at least five hundred bucks for that. Nothing worse than a cheap box. Craftsman makes great boxes, no need to break the bank for snapon or mac, though those are good boxes with high resale values. A lot of SEARS stores have scratch and dents on boxes; I have four sets of rollaways that are full of tools, and each box (top and bottom) was had for a fraction of the regular price because they were scratch and dents. All work great. My original box, the one I started with, was a throw-away by Rocky Mountain Helicopters many moons ago. It was a Craftsman, too.
Hand tools...Craftsman is hard to beat. I own a lot of MAC and Snap-on, too, but I also own almost everything that Craftsman has ever made, and I use them a lot. You'll save a lot of money going that route, and I wouldn't ever consider using any tools lesser priced or lesser quality. Don't use any harbor freight hand tools. Just say no.
For your pneumatic supplies, consider an inline oiler, and a small yellow coiled flexible hose for working from the bench. You should really also consider building a three way hose splitter and buying extra hoses...I hate changing tools over and over again to do one job. Have several hoses attached to a three way splitter for your air lines and you can have a drill, die grinder and rivet gun all available at the same time. You also have the ability to have more than one person working on the airplane at the same time...definitely time to have a bigger compressor available. Again on that, twenty five or thirty cubic foot and six HP or more. Bigger is always better.
Just a few thoughts...
