Wings

Today I was able to finish all the priming on all the brackets, aileron gap fairings, and flap braces. Then I riveted the brackets together. Then riveted them to the wings. Finally, I riveted the left wings' flap brace and aileron gap fairing to the wing.

It's exciting to be able to finish installing these brackets to the wing!

Next came the aileron gap fairings. I riveted them to the wings. Below, the flap braces get riveted to the wings, too. The bottom skins will be riveted on later on. So for now, the flap braces are only riveted to the rear spar.

UPDATE: You may have noticed that I didn't prime the insides of my wing skins. I debated this in my mind for a long time, and finally decided to put my confidence in the alclad surfaces. This was based on everything I read, and even talked about with some of the guys at Van's. I was very careful not to scratch or harm the alclad. I even avoided fingerprints and left the vinyl on as long as possible. I have now come to believe that this was a big mistake. I admit it. I drank the kool-aid. I should have kept in closer touch with my EAA technical advisor. If any of you have doubts about whether or not you should prime the insides of the skins, check out the corrosion showing on this guys RV-8 . So anyway, before riveting the bottom skins on, while I still had access to the insides of the wing, I took great pains to clean, scuff, and prime the insides of the top skins. Not an easy task, but I got it done. I also ended up drilling out every single rivet on the aileron gap fairings, shown above, so I could remove them and scuff, clean, and prime the insides of the wing skins under the fairings. Read more about it on my log entry for Sept. 4, 2008.

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