In the airplane, most of the ~12K+ holes wound up also being dimpled or countersunk (as appropriate based on stock thickness) for flush rivets. Fun times…
Think that is starting to approach Avogadro's number by the time all the op's are done...That's a fair bit I would say. WoW! I'd have been snow blind and arthritic after that. Skinned the side of a 30' Airstream trailer once...nuff rivets at one sitting for a lifetime for me.

With DI's he said the main problem with them sticking(besides old sticky oil and dirt) was the slide mechanism that's on the side of the case with the rod that goes into it. He said there is a ruby or something like that in there that would get rough or flake and the only way to fix that was to replace it. So something to look out for.
Great story and tip from your friend about the bar slide, C-Bag. Interesting how things show up when you start to think about them. Like your friend my dad taught instruments and was a tech before OCS in the early 50's on the F86...hit home with me! Did he say anything about the proper lube to use? I think most modern DI's & DTI's have multiple jeweled bearings, 7 if I remember correctly?