More left wing progress

Today we riveted the attach angles to the flap brackets and the rear spar.  Next we installed one of the aileron attach brackets (we're waiting for a few parts for the second aileron bracket).  Finally we clecoed, match drilled, prepped and primed the flap and aileron gap fairings.  The last thing done today was to rivet the fairings to the skin and rear spar.

The completed brackets back in place. 

Scott working on match drilling one of the Flap attach brackets. 

A close-up of one completed brackets back rivetred in place.  

From another angle. 

Scott clecoing the flap gap faring into place.

The flap gap faring cleco'd into place.

Scott squeezing some rivets on the flap gap faring.

Darren squeezing some rivets on the flap gap faring.

The completed wing sitting right side up. 

Flap and aileron attach brackets

Once the top skins were riveted onto the wing we moved onto the brackets that attach the flap and the aileron to the wing.  There are two sets of parts -- the flap attach brackets and the aileron brackets. 

The flap brackets were easy to do, look like very little work but took a tremendous amount of time.  There were a lot of little parts and the first step was to make three pieces out of aluminium angle.  Of course, all the parts needed to have the edges smoothed and deburred.  Once the outer flap brackets were match drilled to ribs they were deburred, prepped, primed and riveted.  That allowed up to line up the middle flap bracket and match drill it to the rib.  It was then deburred, prepped, primed and riveted to the rib.  Next those aluminium angles were installed and match drilled to the bracket and the main spar.  A second piece of angle was match drilled to the attach bracket and the bottom skins.  Finally the pieces were deburred, prepped and primed. 

The aileron brackets were pre-drilled and needed to be match drilled together and to the spar.  Finally they were deburred, prepped, primed and riveted together.

All this will become clearer with some pictures.

The attach brackets cleco'd into place.  (The wing is sitting ont he table upside dow/ bottom side up.

A close-up of one of the attach brackets.

A close up of one of the nearly completed attach brackets. 

From another angle.

Left Wing Top Skins

Sorry for the lack of updates but we've been doing the same thing for a few weeks.  The left wing top skins have been riveted and the J-channel is installed.  It was very repetitive but we got into a good rhythmand were able to make quick progress.  It is surprisingly hard on the back to rivet the skins so we broke the process down into a couple of smaller chunks.

The outside edge of the wing looking at it from the bottom of the wing. 

 A close-up of some of the completed rivet work.

 A picture of the top of the wing after some of the riveting has been completed.

 

 The outside edge of the wing looking at it from the top of the wing.

 Same shot as above without the flash....

  

You can see a litte more progess hass been made... There are few less cleco's and a few more rivets in place. 

 Again the same shot as above without the flash....

Close-up of the leading edge and top skin riveted into place. 

The riveting of the top skin has been completed. 

Left Wing Leading Edge Completion

We continued the assembly of the leading edge this week.  We riveted the skins to the leading edge ribs (this time we needed to use the rivet gun).  Once that was done worked on installing the leading edge on the wing. Some of the rivets are difficult to install as you need to hold the bucking bar blindly.  Luckily we work well together and we got it installed with very little fuss.  We then squeezed the rivets holding the leading edge skin to the main spar.  And with that the left wing leading edge was completed and installed.  We had a little time left so we beveled the top skins, dimpled and primed the overlap. 

Scott riveting the leading edge skin to the ribs 

Darren inspecting the work and the instructions 

Darren clecoing the leading edge to the main spar. 

The leading edge installed on the main spar 

A close-up of the leading edge rivets 

The project that actually ends

Well, we finally wrapped up the hangar.  This past weekend we installed the weather stripping around the door.  It looks great and feels terrific that we are finally done.

Scott installing weather stripping on the side of the hangar door. 

A picture of the weather stripping on the bottom of the doors (Darren installed all of these) 

The hangar is finally finished! 

An interior shot of the hangar with the lights on. 

Another picture inside the hangar 

The point of no return

According to the assembly instructions, this is the "point of no return" as things start going together in final assembly.  We first installed some plate nuts so that we can install the landing light into the wing leading edge.  After that we reassembled the leading edge and began riveting it together.  Finally we installed the plate nuts that will be used to connect the fuel tank to the leading edge.  It was nice to start putting the wing together.

Scott fitting the wing light installation template into the leading edge rib. 

A picture of the instructions to install the HID (High Intensity Discharge) landing lights from Duckworks Aviation. 

A couple of platenuts being installed for the landing lights. 

The reason for the title of this entry (this is where parts of the wing start going together permanently) 

Scott adjusting the rivet squeezer 

Darren installing the platenuts on the leading edge (the fuel tank is connected here).  

Left wing preparations (many weekends of effort)

Sorry for the lack of updates over the past few weeks.  This one will cover all of the work we've done since the last update. 

We've spent a lot of time doing the same things over and over.  We deburred all of the wing skins and ribs.  Next we dimpled all of the stiffners, ribs and the skins (I can't say enough that there are a lot of rivet holes on the wing).  With the main spar it was necessary to machine countersink any rivet holes.  None of this is difficult but it does take a lot of timeand is very repetitive.  We finished the various sessions by priming the main skins and all other parts.  Most of the prep work is finished so assembly of the left wing will start.

 April 4th

Darren working on some deburring. 

 

Scott working on some dimpling. 

April 7th

 

Scott working on prepping one of the wing skins (we remove the blue protective plastic coating). 

 

A shot of the ongoing dimpling work.  This is one of the wing ribs. 

 

Darren working on prepping one of the wing skins.  

 April 19th

A team effort: using the c-frame dimpler on one of the wing skins. 

April 21st

 

The main wing spar after some machine counter sinking. 

The machine countersinking of the rivert holes on the main spar is done so the rivets will sit flush with the skin when all the components are assembled. 

 

Darren working on machine countersinking. 

 

Scott taking a turn at countersinking.