Left wing tiedown installed, left wing skeleton assembled!

Last weekend I worked on the left tie-down bracket, having received the replacement bolts I ordered from Aircraft Spruce. Brian Judge also came over to help deburr some of the right wing main ribs. And then we got distracted fixing up Erin's car...

 

So we were back at it this weekend, got the left tie-down bracket bolted on!

 Then I worked on the replacement rear spar reinforcement plate, edge-deburring it last week, clamping it in place this week:

 Match-drilling:

 Countersunk, deburred, scuffed & cleaned, ready for primer:

 And then Sam came out to squash some rivets!

Since I had some extra hands and the weather was nice, we assembled the left wing skeleton:

 Like mother, like daughter:

Sister act...

 And don't worry Adam & Rochelle, your ribs are together (and right behind the gas tank - you're welcome, Adam!).

 Parting shot - look closely at the lightening holes...

We accomplished a lot today in pretty short order; of course, once these holes are match-drilled, we're back in the deburring doldrums. Ah well, we're not far from hanging these puppies on the wing stand - and time to skin 'em! Crazy.

 

Wings: 4 hrs

Rear spars deburred, primed, right rear spar riveted!

With Grandma entertaining the kids I made great progress on the wings on Sunday.

 

First up I deburred the holes in the rear spars and dimpled the top flanges where the doublers would interfere.

 

Right spar deburred:

And the left:

The squeezer yoke left some light scratches in the spar web, as you can see below, but they buffed out ok with some aggressive scotchbriting.

Parts scuffed, washed & dried - ready for priming!

And primed.

While the primer was drying I riveted the nutplates & spacers to the tiedown brackets.

More finished pieces! (Yes, I primed the back of the spacers after the above photo)

I was able to cleco the rear spar assemblies together in preparation for riveting.

And started driving rivets! Right rear spar W-707F complete (ordered the replacement for the left, should be here this week).

Right W-707E complete

Note the orange tape "flags;" translation: hey dummy, don't rivet here!

The girls came out to help place a few rivets & check on the progress - didn't catch them on camera this time.

 

Then: rivets were squoze.

I had some other helpers/inspectors (hecklers?) come out after the girls went to bed. They were quickly enlisted for cleco removal, rivet placement, etc.



Isn't she beautiful? Also: my wife.

Yes, the factory heads (domed part of the rivet) face two different ways. Standard practice is to place the factory heads on the thinnest material. I forgot to do this when riveting the double-doublers, but corrected myself for the rest of the W-707Gs.

 

Research suggests this isn't a serious issue, and since the rivets are set well, I'd risk enlarging the holes if I chose to remove & replace them. One more lesson learned.

This is what the other side looks like. I plan to prime it once the rest of the attachment holes are match-drilled.

With the right rear spar complete and the left complete but for the W-707F replacement, we wanted to see if this pile of parts would go together like the picture says.

Mom realized that reading blueprints is basically the same as playing with Legos.

I shuffled things around,

And Erin clecoed the ribs to the spar.

Hmm....

Look! It flies!

Way cool. Also discovered we should attach the ribs to the main spar first, then the rear spar. And there are a few rib to rear-spar holes at the inboard end that don't appear to line up.... not sure why, and I need to do some digging to figure it out.

All things considered, it was a great weekend of work, I'm very thankful for all the help I had, and we finished with some mashed rivets and something that looks like it belongs on an airplane. Thanks everybody! 

 

Wings: 5 hrs



Main spar platenuts complete, rear spar prep

I had some expert help once again placing rivets to secure the wing inspection plate platenuts on the main spar.

Main spar flange platenuts complete! Say that five times fast.



We also countersunk and riveted the K1000-4 platenuts at the inboard end of both spars.



I measured & marked the tiedown spacer brackets, opting to cut them to length prior to drilling the center holes. I ran out after lunch to get a new hacksaw blade which helped matters considerably, only to realize a few minutes later I'd forgotten to pick up the hole saw I needed for the 1" center holes.

The AEX tiedowns themselves were already cut to dimension, with one of the two needing only a 1/32" shave with a file.

Next up I marked the dimensions to trim the inboard ends of the rear spar doubler plates & cut them by hand.



I touched up a few spots on the rear spars that needed a bit more deburring, and took the aileron bracket attach doublers to the deburring wheel.



It was a good long stretch in the shop, and I was surprised on the video to see how much of it Nat was out there with me - she placed rivets, removed clecos, learned how to use the hacksaw to trim the doubler plates, and even volunteered to vacuum the shop! Not bad for a few months shy of 6 years old.

 

  

Wings: 5 hrs