Right wing bottom skin

Posted on by Neal

Today I spent some time riveting the bottom right skin. I was able to rivet all then way up to the j-channel. So far it has been straight forward and no issues, but I suspect it will become increasingly challenging as I get closer to the main spar.

I slipped in the j-channel, making sure to go between the inboard j-channel and the skin, and then clecoed it into position. I then checked the clearance between the j-channel and the rib cut outs, and everything looked good.

The duct tape straps are to hold the skin away from the ribs to allow easier access to buck rivets. I need to remember to take out the padding on the spa soon, else it will be stuck there forever!
Clearance between the j-channel and one of the ribs. Because the j-channel was match drilled there’s a chance that the alignment could be off. This one looks great on all ribs.

Left wing bottom skin

Posted on by Neal

Today I clecoed the old left wing bottom skin to the new one, marked out the pitot tube mast mount holes, and then drilled them all. I also made a start of cutting out the mast hole, but didn’t finish that step.

I previously decided to replace the left bottom skin. On my first pair of QB wings, I had riveted on most of the left skin before deciding to replace the wings due to faulty primer. Because I had painstakingly positioned the pitot tube mast mount holes on the old skin, I drilled out all of the rivets and removed the skin before sending the wings back to Vans. I couldn’t reuse the skin because too many of the holes were enlarged.

Drilled j-channel

Posted on by Neal

On the right wing, I match drilled the three holes into the j-channel stiffeners on the bottom skin. These three holes are where the two lengths of channel overlap, and they need match drilling.

Nothing much to report, I had to install and remove the skin to mark the hole positions, and didn’t encounter any issues.

Once the holes were drilled, I deburred and dimpled them.