Day 58

One eternity of rivets today! We got the entirety of the left wing top skins riveted on today. Almost right at 1000 rivets. All were first clear drilled and deburred to make sure the rivets went in smoothly. First riveted the main spar, then the rear spar to insure proper alignment of the skin. Then the ribs and support channels were riveted.

Lastly on the main skin, there are approximately 125 3.2mm rivets that the manual instructs you to short the 8mm shaft to 5.2mm. They tell you to do this because the longer rivets cause a binding issue when the flaps are fully extended. You’re instructed to remove the mandrill and trim the rivets with a Dremel tool and reinsert the mandrill. This seemed like a lot of unnecessary work, so we were able to source 300 appropriate length rivets. We felt this would save substantial time, as well as insure all rivets were of proper length, as well as not have any sharp edges. It also allowed them all to pull uniformly.

After the main skin was riveted in place, the inside secondary skin panel (The one that will go up against the pane) was Cleco’ed, clear drilled, deburred and riveted in like manner as the main skin. This panel was to be placed on top, overlapping the main skin. Then wraps around the back of the wing, lapping underneath the bottom skin.

Tomorrow we will start the process over again with the right wing, starting with the mounting of the long rang fuel tank.