Wings

Now that the bottom skins are prepared, I thought I would get out the cover plates for the bottom of the wing and prepare them. But first, I had a mishap while finishing up the riveting of the top skins. Nearly right at the end of the work, this rivet set snapped right in two! This is the double-offset extended reach rivet set from Avery Tools. It's used for back-riveting.

The spring goes behind the white head on this rivet set and rests on the metal shaft. It was machined for this purpose, and it's the weakest spot. I called Avery tools the next day and they replaced it without any questions. Great people! They even overnighted it to me. Can't ask for more than that.

When the rivet set snapped, it caused some damage to the wing rib seen above. I emailed this picture to Vans and asked them what to do. They got back to me right away and told me to file and buff out the split metal all the way down to the bottom of the crack, and it would be okay. So I carefully cut away the sharp bent burrs, filed and buffed it nice and smooth, prepped and primed the area again. By the way, the best way I have found to prime small areas like this is to use a Q-Tip dipped in the primer. I shake the can up real good, open it and immediately dip the Q-Tip in the paint, apply it as necessary, throw the Q-Tip away and you're done. No mess. No clean-up. Only takes a minute. Works great.

Anyway, moving on... here are the cover plates for the access openings on the bottoms of the wings. I de-vinyled, drilled, deburred, and dimpled them all.

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