Many days of little bits of progress, but I finally got the main ribs on the R wing spar.
The first thing I did for the ribs was pull all of the blue plastic off. Took 45 min to strip 28 ribs. I remember reading that heat helps the adhesive to peel off, but my garage was pretty cold. I use this propane ‘torpedo’ heater to warm things up. I discovered that holding the blue rib in front of the blast from the torpedo would warm it up in about 5 seconds and greatly facilitated removing the snake skins. You can see the pile I created in the process.
Here’s a pretty typical shot, the main ribs are clecoed in place and I am verifying that things align well before proceeding with rivets.
Another view of the clecoed ribs.
OK, take a close look at the rivet on the vertical surface in this before & after pair. Do you see the slight gap in the 1st photo? The reason I took those pictures is because I noted that I hadn’t gotten a good, firm seat of the rivet before pulling the trigger, so it was “loose.” I simply noted it, put down the rivet gun and reached for my #52 drill to drill it out before I realized that this was just a matter of fact and not one that got me all worked up about having to remove a rivet. OK, enough of demonstrating that I’m growing up. :)
Main ribs in place, with rear spar attached.
Another of my ‘favorite view’ shots.
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