The next order of business was to figure out how to plumb the heated pitot tube into the wing.  I decided that I wanted to go with soft aluminum tubing back to the wing root.  Time to challenge my tube bending skills>  Read on.

This is my pile of sacrificial tubing.  When I mounted up my pitot tube to the wing and the cut the wing skins for the pitot tube and mast, I placed the pitot on the outboard rib adjacent to the aileron bell crank and inspection cover.  Hindsight what it is, I immediately saw that I was going to need to do some tube bending.  In case I forget to mention later, I love the bender I have below.  It is a tight radius bender that will bend up to 180 degrees in one bend.  Works GREAT.... I got it from Sears.  I have a smaller bender I will be able to use in tight spaces, but it doesn't work nearly as well as the bender below.

I ran the pitot tubing to the wing root to an AN fitting.  This is not the final fit up here, I was just checking to make sure that I didn't cut my tubing to short....  Looks dead on to me.

I modified one of the spacer washers so that it could fit flat on the root rib.  I am going to prime before I install the AN fitting permanently.

Okay, I had to come up with a way to leave the tubing in the routing hole and then get the tubing bent around to match up with the pitot.  This was the simplest bend I came up with.

Because the pitot mast is close to the inspection hole (one bay over), all I have to do is slide the pitot mast up to expose the AN fitting to connect the pitot tube.

So far so good.

Screw the pitot mast back to the reinforcement plate and everything looks great.  The tubing lines up perfectly and I didn't have to flex the tubing line in order to install the pitot.

Everything looks good and lines up.

I am pretty happy with how this looks.

I have plenty of space between the wing spar and the aileron bellcrank.  I did bend it slightly to center the tubing as close as possible.

I am happy to have this tubing routed.  I really wanted to use the more rigid aluminum tubing vs. some of the poly tubing kits I have seen out there.  I will probably use the poly tubing kits to tie the pitot system into the wing root....  Okay, what's next???  I can't wait to wrap up these small wing tasks and move onto the fuselage.

Today, I thought that I would find one of those "quick" jobs and came up with assembling the aileron bell cranks.  Well, once I found all the parts, I ran into the first problem.  The brass bushing that the AN4-32A bolt goes through had some dimensional challenges.  Van's cuts the brass bushing to the proper length (within 1/64"), however, the ID of the bushing is not large enough to run the AN4 bolt through.

I checked some other builders web sites, and at least one of them, made mention of this same issue.  The AN4 bolt has an OD of 0.250".  Definitely not the same dimension as the ID of the brass bushing.

No matter how much I wanted it to fit, it just wouldn't go.

This kind of crap, p_sses me off.  To do this correctly, and to what my wife calls my anal standards, this hole needs to be reamed out to the 1/4".  Why does Van's do that?  Their pre-punched stuff is so accurate, then the average guy has to cobble a solution to drill out a brass bushing to proper dimension.  Why not just supply a brass bushing of the proper ID dimensions? Heck, I have the tools to cut the bushing to the proper length...
However, I don't have the tooling (mill, reamers, etc) to do this correctly.  One of the builders I checked up on used a drill press and a 1/4" drill bit.  Now the trick here is to hold it such that it doesn't gouge the crap out of the outside of the bushing.

Drilling out the ID of the bushing didn't actually turn out to bad.  It didn't turn out as nice as if I had the proper reamer to take it to dimension.  However, the real  trick was to hold it during the drilling process.  I wrapped tape around the bushing to prevent the jaws of the vice grip from gouging the bushing.  This worked okay until the bushing got warm, then the tape adhesive got gooey and started slipping.

When I was done, I had some minor surface blemishes, so I chucked the bushing up in the drill press and sanded them out with a 400 grit sandpaper letting the drill press more or less do the work.

Even after my dissatisfaction with Van's on this, the aileron bell crank worked great.  Very smooth and feels really good.  No slop in the bushing at all.

I torqued the AN4-32A and AN3-6A mounting bolts in accordance with the torque tables in the Standard Aircraft Handbook as follows:

• AN4-32A:  60 in-Ibs
• AN3-6A:  30 in-Ibs

 

I somehow found a burst of energy and used it to convince Tami it was time to rivet the top skins on the left wing.  This wing has been in the stand for>>>  Humm, lets just say a LONG TIME.

I told Tami that I thought that this would only take a couple of hours.  For the most part, I didn't lie....  Once we shot a few rivets and got back into a rhythm, it did go pretty quickly.  In all, it took us about 5 hours to rivet both skins on (minus the rear spar.  Note Clecoes).

I am yet amazed how accurate the pre-punched kits are.  The fit between the leading edge and top skins is just excellent.  It is at least as good as my Cherokee.

Like I said, just excellent.  Couldn't be happier.

Only a few more rivets and the top skins are DONE.  One thing I found to be a relief is that the fuel tank Z-brackets all lined up to the spar just fine.  I have had visions that I would go to mount the fuel tank to the wing and I would have one of those Z-brackets on a 180 degrees out.  Needless to say, that was one mistake I was fortunate enough not to make.

I ran the electrical conduit before I took it out of the wing stand.  I had also seen posts of guys who had left their blue plastic on for a length of time and when the removed it, found slight corrosion under the plastic.  So I took some of mine off to see if I had any problems.  No problems, however, I do air condition and de-humidify my garage during the summer.  I plan on taking off all the plastic when I get the wings done.

Today, I decided to I could no longer delay myself from starting back up on the wings.  I have been working on things around the house and working some more of that free "salaried overtime".  Anyway, I have been reviewing my logs and looking over the wings to see where I left off on them so long ago.

I decided that I could pickup on some odds and ends that lent themselves to mindless riveting and clecoing.....
I started by riveting the aileron brackets to the rear spar.  Note the gray primer touch up job.  Well, when I left off last, I started riveting the aileron brackets to the spar when I realized that the rivet under the gray primer was actually a AN470 rivet instead of a AN426 rivet as called for by the prints.  Last time I stopped in Plattsmouth, I checked Kevin Faris's project out and check the air gap between the aileron and this bracket.  Sure enough, if the aileron didn't rub on the rivet head, it was EXTREMELY close....  I decided to drill out that rivet and install a AN426 rivet as called out in the plans.

Of course, I made the mistake on the inboard and outboard aileron brackets.

Once I got done with fixing the aileron brackets, I clecoed up the aileron gap seal and riveted it to the wing.

Next I started riveting the leading edge on the right wing to the spar.  It had been so long since I worked on the wing, I took about an hour or so and checked my rigging of the spar in the stand.  I made sure that there was no sag or twist in the spar.  Once i verified that I was good here, I proceed in clecoing the top skin to the skeleton.

I pretty much riveted the leading edge to the wing spar exactly as I did with the right wing with one exception.  I used the Cherrymax rivets to attach the wings outboard ribs to the spar.  See my right wing leading edge log entry.  Right wing leading edge entry

This went pretty fast considering that I haven't done much in the last year +...

The leading edge, now attached permanently to the wing...

I made reservations with my bucking partner to rivet the top skins on tomorrow after work.  We should be able to make quick work of that (relatively) if we get started right after work (and I don't have to put in some of that free salaried overtime I have been getting plenty of).

After I got as far as I could on implementing Van's fuel tank service bulletin, I decided that I was going to work on finishing the installation of the HID lamps.

As I did with the right wing, I placed the ballast on the outboard rib for the leading edge.  I centered, and tilted the ballast slightly to accommodate the Yazaki (Harlbera) connector (the connector that plugs into the ballast and connects the ballast to the HID igniter on the lamp).

To hold the ballast in place while I drill the holes for the nutplates, I broke out the vice grip clamps and locked it down when I was happy with my placement.

A set of transfer punches would have been nice to get the exact center of the hole, but what I did to improve the accuracy of my hole placement is found the drill bit # that just fit in the mounting hole.  I just twisted the drill bit a few times by hand and the center point of the drill bit removed enough material to more or less mark the center of the hole.

Where the center of the drill bit removed the primer, I used a spring loaded center punch to punch the location so that my drill bit wouldn't wander when I went to drill the holes for the plate nuts.

The holes are now marked and centered. 

With the nutplate holes drilled and riveted, I mounted the ballast and everything lined up great.

Routing of the wires to the HID lamp made me scratch my head a little in that I want everything to be nicely routed and look professional.  On the lower left side of the ballast, I drilled a hole and placed a bushing in it where I will pass the wires through the outboard rib.

The one problem I have with this installation is that Duckworks fabricates the wiring harnesses for you.  Well, if the ballast is in close proximity to the lamp, you have an excessive amount of wire harness to figure out what to do with.  As I did on my right wing, I shortened the harness by cutting out a center section and then re-splicing it together.  This is not my first choice of how to handle this, but I looked long and hard for the connectors for this lighting harness and couldn't find them.  I could have probably called Duckworks and bought the connectors if he makes them himself.

Anyway, I measured the length of wire I needed from the ballast to the lamp, cut the wires (offsetting each splice) and reconnected them with butt splices.  I covered the butt splices with a heavy wall shrink tube that has adhesive on the inside.  The adhesive flows while shrinking the tubing and makes a great environmental seal.  After I got the individual splices done, I ran another length of shrink tubing over the entire spliced connections.  This should be at least as good as the original jacketing of the wires.

Point to note here is that I had to run the wiring through the hole in the rib and then splice it together.  I am sure that I will be cussing when I have to replace this wiring.  Probably won't be necessary to replace while I own the airplane.

This is what the routing looks like on the inside of the rib.  I used a nutplate and a cushion clamp to immobilize the wiring slightly and keep it from rubbing / chaffing on the inside of the wing.

A power up check of the newly installed light was SAT.  I can't wait to see how much light these offer during a night flight.  The HID's appear to be extremely bright when running them and shining up the neighbors property.

Today's goal was to finish up what I could on the landing light for the left wing.  Basically, I had to finish the following:

• Drill the plexiglas to the wing skin holes.
• Dimple the wing skin and countersink the plexiglas mounting holes.
• Mount nutplates to the reinforcement plates used to attach the plexiglas to the wing.
• Mount the XenDrive HID Ballast.
• INSTALL IT ALL IN THE LEADING EDGE.

The Duck states to use some fiberglass reinforcement strapping tape to pull the plexiglas tight up against the leading edge skin.  I made two tape handles for Tami to pull on to tighten the plexiglas up against the skin.  I applied a hair dryer up to the plexiglas to warm it up above 70 degrees.  I just wanted that extra margin to prevent, if I could, cracking the plexiglas.  I am beginning to "see the light at the end of the tunnel" and I don't want anymore fabrication set backs....

The Duck's instructions state that you can dimple the skins plexiglas attach holes this to a #30.  Well, I didn't like the fit!!!!  So I had a test hole on some scrap aluminum that I dimpled with a #6 dimple die and the fit of the screw head was MUCH BETTER.  After drilling the holes for the plexiglas, I drilled out the wing skin attach holes to #26 so that I could fit the #6 screw dimple die into the hole.  A quick test fit with the attach screws proved I had a nice fit.

I didn't take any pictures of countersinking the plexiglas lens.  Two points of advice include:

• Leave as much tape around the hole as possible so that the countersink cage doesn't scratch the plexiglas lens.
• Take it slow.  The lens is curved so it makes it a slight challenge to get a nice even countersink.

Now that the plexiglas lens is ready for the leading edge, I moved on to the light bracket.  One thing that I didn't totally solve on the right wing is how to route the wiring from XenDrive igniter to the lamp.  In the picture below to the right of the lamp, I mounted a nutplate to which I could attach a cushion clamp on the back of the lighting bracket.

The idea here was to route and immobilize the wiring between the lamp and the XenDrive ballast.

This is what my wire routing looks like so far.  I still have to figure out how I want to get the wire permanently routed out to the igniter so that it doesn't chafe the wire as it passes through the outboard rib.  I have an idea or two, but that is going to be a log entry for another day.....

Okay, I have the plexiglas countersunk, the weather stripping installed, and the aluminum reinforcement mounting plates stuck to the back with double sided tape.  Now how to get it in that hole in the wing without scratching it.

A few tense moments sliding it through the hole and viola...  the lens is attached to the wing skin.

My gap(s) between the lens and the skin are consistent with the results I got on the right wing.  There is a ever so slight gap between the two, but I also have to remember / keep in mind that there is weather stripping installed between the two surfaces.

Overall, I am pretty happy with the form fit and function of the landing light.  All I have to do is solve my permanent wire routing to the igniter and mount the igniter to the outboard leading edge like I did for the right wing.

I am still wrapping up a lot of little wings tasks at this point.  I am getting more and more anxious to get started on that Fuselage.

I was able to put in some "quality" time on the airplane today.  I set a goal for myself to finish the wings by the end of the month so that I can move onto the fuselage.  I have also been able to get out and fly the Cherokee the last couple of days so that has "resparked" the desire to get the RV done.

I took all the skins off the wing and countersunk all the spar holes for the leading edge and the wing skins.  Not pictured, but on this wing, I primed the countersunk holes with some rattle can self etching primer.  Mixing up Epoxy primer every time you need to prime a small part or a quick job like this, is not only extremely time consuming, but expensive with the epoxy primer being $120 for a two gallon kit and that doesn't even cover the hazmat shipping expense of the primer.  It isn't as "pretty" as using all epoxy primer, but once the wing is assembled, you will never see it.

I decided that I would get the landing light kit installed on the left wing.  What seems like a long time ago, I decided to put in dual HID landing/taxi lights in the wings.  These things are extremely bright and draw minimal current.  At $450 a piece, they better work great.  There sure isn't much to the kit for that kind of $$$$.

I dug out my template that was provided by the Duck from the light kit I put in the right wing.  Following the Duck's directions, I drew a line on the top of the wing skin that was exactly 18.25" from the trailing edge of top side of the leading edge skin.

Then I lined up the template and drew the outline of the landing light on the skin.  This means I am getting close to cutting A REALLY BIG HOLE in the skin....

And then, the nervousness set in......  I started the hole using a cut off wheel in a die grinder.  This worked really great to get the rough opening of the hole made out.  I stayed at least 1/2 inch inside the lines I drew for the final hole cutout dimension.

This picture jumps forward quit a bit.  After roughing out the hole with the die grinder, I used some rotary burr bits to get the landing line dimension within approximately 1/8 inch of my final dimension.  Then to really straighten out the lines of the cutout, it was time to manually file the high points and "straighten up" the lines.  When i was pretty happy with how square everything was, I used 1" scotchbrite wheels in the die grinder to remove the last 1/16 inch or so.  Last, but not least, I sanded all the edges with 400 grit wet/dry sandpaper.  It was a lot of steps that were taken slowly.  The rotary burr bits are really aggressive and not maintaining 100% control of the die grinder would have quickly ruined the leading edge assembly.

Last but not least, I re-attached the template to the cutout hole to line up the plexiglas reinforcement brackets.  At this point, I am drilling the holes that will attach the plexiglas window to the inside of the leading edge skin.

This probably took me 2+ hours to get the landing light cutout to look like this.  I am really happy with how the light cutout turned out.

After finishing the cutout, I took the leading edge off the wing spar.  This is what the rotary burr bits leave behind.  That aluminum didn't stand a chance.....

I was brushing aluminum out of my clothes and my hair all day long.

After success on the light cutout, I moved onto cutting the plexiglas lens to its final dimensions.  I fit the plexiglas to the outside of the wing to roughly determine how much material I needed to trim off the plexiglas to obtain dimension that was 1" on each side larger than the hole in the wing.

To prevent scratching of the plexiglas, "encapsulated" it in painters tape.  I was able to cut the plexiglas to a rough dimension using the band saw.  I cut to within around 1/8" of my desired final dimension.  That left me with room to smooth everything out and straighten (if necessary) using the belt sander.

The belt sander did a great job of taking the plexiglas down to its final dimension.  When I got to final dimensions, I rounded the corners of the plexiglas.  To put the final finish on the edges of the plexiglas, I sanded the edges with the 400 grit wet/dry sandpaper.  That left the edges of the plexiglas looking almost polished.

To make sure I didn't make any boo boo's, I checked the fit on the outside of the wing.  I think that I am in great shape on the top...

and the bottom....

By this time I was ready to call it a night.  Thrilled with my progress so far, I decided to mount the nutplates that hold the light assembly in the wing.  To get the squeezer in here to dimple (and rivet) the nutplates on, I had to disassemble the squeezer and reassemble after I ran the longeron yoke through the lightening hole.

Here the nutplates are riveted to the inboard rib.  One thing to note here is that I have changed the way I do business with nutplates.  Up to this point, I never was to concerned with priming the nutplates.  However, after working on the Cherokee the last year +, the parts that suffered corrosion have been the steel bolts, clipnuts, etc.  The aluminum looks good yet, but the steel components have been subjected to rust....  So from now on, I am making a point to at least put some rattle can self etching primer on them.  It only takes a few minutes with the rattle can stuff.  I guess I am trying to make sure that airframe will last at least as long as the pilot flying it (me). 

The outboard ribs were no problem to attach the nutplates.  Just get them on the right side of the ribs.

The brackets the Duck sent with my light kit had a mis-formed bracket that required the flanges to be bent out slightly to make the bracket longer to span the two ribs in the leading edge.  This was a pretty straight forward affair as I just made two bends by placing the bracket in the bench vise and bending the bracket....  To keep the lamp lined up with the hole I just cut in the wing, one side was bent out slightly more than the other side.

Just a pict of the other side.  My bends turned out pretty well.  After making the bends, I "dry fit" the bracket in the wing to make sure everything lined up.  It looked great, lets move on...

Attaching the nutplates to the light bracket....  Again, rattle can primer on the nutplates.

And finally, the light secured to the bracket.  All I have left is to finish up prepping the plexiglas lens and the light is ready to be installed.   Oohh yeah, I also have to mount the igniter, route and secure the wiring, etc...

I decided that it was time to drill the pitot tube mast mounting hardware to the left wing.  I solicited some help from Tami to mount and cleco the lower outboard wing skin back onto the wing.  Once we got the wing skin clecoed, we took the top wing skin off.  This allowed me to cleco the pitot tube mast reinforcement plate to the wing and back drill the reinforcement plate to skin holes.

My last building session, I drilled the four holes to the reinforcement plate that attach it to the wing spar.  I also laid out and drilled 8 holes (4 on each side) the length of the reinforcement plate where it is riveted to the wing skin.  The 4 reinforcement plate to spar holes were used to hold the plate in place to start drilling the reinforcement plate to wing skin holes.

From a head on shot, it looks like the edge of the reinforcement plate runs parallel to the wing rib.  You want this bracket to hold the pitot tube as straight as possible with respect to the air flow over / under the wing.

Just drill and cleco as you go...

Once I got the 8 #40 holes drilled that rivet the reinforcement plate to the wing skin, I drilled the 4 holes that are used to secure the pitot tube mast to the wing with #8 screws.  Those 4 holes are drilled with a #19 drill bit.

Now for the point of no return....  Cutting the hole for the pitot tube mast.  My plan was to shape the hole using a rotary file bit in the die grinder.  To get started here, I drilled a hole in the center of the mast cutout with a unibit (stepped drill bit).  Then I shaped the hole roughly with the rotary file bit in the die grinder.  Those bits are really aggressive and FAST.  So, when I got close to the final shape, I broke out the Dremel Tool with its rotary bit.  The Dremel tool is not nearly as aggressive and gave me more control to make the final shape.  To finish it off, I smoothed out all the edges with 400 grit sandpaper.  Below, you can see my "rough" cutout.

This is with the pitot mast roughly held in place.  There is a slight gap around the mast.  On my mast, there was a slight lip on what is the bottom edge of the mast.  So the cutout shape on the reinforcement plate (and wing skin) had to be slightly re-shaped.  When the mast finally fit through the hole, this is what I have for gap around the pitot mast.

It looks like a big gap in the pictures, but that gap is not really that big.  That said, I am still glad it is on the bottom of the wing.

Yes, in the picture, the pitot mast is still there.  When looking at it straight on, you can see that there is no visible gap.  Not pictured here (see last picture on page), I drilled 3 additional holes on the aft side of the pitot mast reinforcement plate and skin.

Gretz has you fabricate an angle to attach the reinforcement plate to the wing rib.  This angle is not supplied with the kit.  I found some .032" aluminum called out in the instructions from a access cover plate I screwed up earlier.  I have learned to never throw away parts I have screwed up.  You never know when you can scavenge material from them.  Anyway, I took it to work and put it on a brake to bend my 90 degree and used a metal shear to cut it roughly to size.  As it turns out, I trimmed it more when I got it back and dry fit it to the wing.  I ended up trimming material off with the band saw.  A little tweaking here and there and it turned out great.

I just lined up the support angle where I wanted it, clamped into place and drilled them to size #30.  Gretz leaves those hole sizes up to you.  He really doesn't specify.

Okay, all holes drilled and mast hole cut.  After looking at this, I should have really mounted this pitot on the other side of this bay (to the right about a foot).  That is where other builders have put it.  It is still further outboard than what Van's drawings show for their stock pitot tube.  I don't foresee any operational issue here.  It will definitely be outside of the propeller wash.  The only potential issue I see is that it may be harder to plumb tubing since it sits right next to the inboard rib for that bay.

Tonight, I decided to start mounting the pitot tube mast.  My first task was to find it in all the drawers I have put parts in over the past two years.  I had decided at the start of the project, I would use a Gretz Aero pitot tube mast and a heated pitot.  I had gotten my heated pitot tube before they saw their HUGE increase in price.  Anyway, I found the pitot mast and the mounting instructions.

On the Cherokee, one of the things I am finding out is that the aluminum air structure doesn't seem to be showing any signs of corrosion (and it is a 1966 Cherokee), but the nutplates and clip nuts are all rusting out.  Therefore, I am going to be priming all attaching hardware.  I use the AKZO NOBEL Epoxy Primer, but that is very time intensive to mix up and clean the spray equipment when done.  So for those times when I am not doing a full blown priming session, I bought some self etching rattle can primer.  It makes putting a coat of primer on small parts quick and easy.  This stuff seems to work fairly well.  I got it from Aircraft Spruce although, I know there are other types of primers out there.  This stuff dries in about 15 minutes.

For being a rattle can primer, I am usually able to get a nice coverage of parts.

The first step was to rivet the corner nutplates to the pitot tube mast.

Next, I marked the center of the mounting flange of the reinforcement plate.  That is where I will line up the flange on the wing spar aft set of rivet holes.

Based on the instructions for the pitot mast and other builders web pages, I am placing the pitot tube one bay outboard of the last inspection cover.  This will move it away from the aileron bell crank assembly.   I lined up the Sharpie marker line I made to the centerline of the line of aft rivet holes.  I also verified that the pre-bent offset on the reinforcement plate laid correctly against the spar.

For left to right placement, I just placed the reinforcement plate near the wing rib, but with enough distance that two will not rub and chaffe each other.

Just start drilling......

Working on the log entries for the wing lately feels like I am just regurgitating log entries I made with the right wing.  Therefore, I am omitting a lot of detail here if it is something I covered when doing my right (1st) wing.
Today, my goal was to get all the z-brackets drilled and get ready for riveting the leading edge together on Saturday.  Below, I am following the same method for z-bracket drilling I used on the right wing.  I first drilled the inboard z-bracket and rib.  You can sort of see in the picture where I marked the center of the z-bracket flange where it is clecoed to the rib and baffle plate.  Since you can slide the tank an 1/8 to the top of and/or bottom of the wing, I marked the center of the z-bracket and that is where I drilled the center rivet hole for the rib and clecoed it in place.

Within a couple of minutes, I had drilled the 5 z-bracket holes to size #30.

Then I proceeded to the outboard of the fuel tank and lined up the leading edges of the tank and leading edge.  You can see on this tank, I used a ratchet strap to put a SLIGHT force on the tank to line up the two leading edges.  When I was happy with their alignment, I drilled the tank screw attach holes to the attach plate with a #19 drill bit.

Here is my a couple of pictures of my ratchet strap set-up.  Note on the rear spar, I have a piece of scrap 4" x 4" block.  This was to prevent the strap from bending the wing skin clecoed to the skeleton.  The top skin overhangs the rear spar by a little to form part of  gap seal.  I didn't want the ratchet strap to apply any force to the skin and bend it.  MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!!!

Just my strap arrangement from the top side of the skin.  I just tried to be careful with the location of the ratchet mechanism and the hooks.

After you drill the inboard rib to z-bracket holes, then the next step is to remove the leading edge to gain access to the outboard tank rib and z-bracket.

With the ratchet strap in place, it also performed a second unintentional feature of holding the tank place and kept it from moving.  A big nylon, adjustable cleco if you will....

Once the outboard rib has been drilled and clecoed to the z-bracket, then remove the tank keeping the inboard and outboard ribs clecoed to the z-brackets.  This holds the baffle plate in place so that the rest of the baffle plate to z-bracket rivet holes can be drilled.

I didn't get any pictures of prepping and priming the leading edge and z-brackets.  As you can see below, the z-brackets are primed with the exception of the flange that will be attached to the tank baffle plate.  I didn't want the primer to interfere with the tank sealant.

Also I think that Van's has done a less than stellar job on these z-brackets.  On this tank, I got the nutplate holes almost perfectly centered on the one flange.  However, the other flange (that attaches to the tank baffle plate) results in its holes very close to the web of the z-bracket.  I checked, and I will still be able to get the pop rivets in there to attach the z-brackets to the tank.

Basically, I would think that Van's could easily move the holes on the main spar to move the z-bracket over about 1/16", the holes on both z-bracket flanges would be dang near perfectly centered.

Below, I am drilling for the nutplates by using 3 sacrificial nutplates that I tapped out when I was working on the right tank so that I could easily screw on and remove the nutplates.

After drilling out for the nutplates, it didn't take long to countersink for the nutplate rivets and rivet the nutplates to the z-brackets (that is except for the inboard z-bracket).

With a little persuasion, I got Tami to help me rivet the leading edge together.  Now when I ask her for help, before she will answer, she asks me if we are working on the tank?  She has been really good at helping me with the exception of the sealing the tank.  I guess I can't blame her.  I don't want to mess with the sealant either.

We are getting fairly proficient at riveting AD3- rivets.  Tami has decided she likes bucking more than shooting.  It doesn't matter to me as long as she helps.

On the right wing, I got in the habit of putting a piece of tape over the rivet hammer attachment.  The benefit of that is that it prevents the rivet hammer from scratching the surface of the skin around the rivet.  Well, on the leading edge, I had to drill out 3 rivets because the factory head of the rivet pinched off a piece of tape and the tape got trapped under the shop head (Yes, I changed the tape every 3 or 4 rivets).  Dag Bernit!!!  After that, I said screw the tape on the rivet hammer.  Since the plane will be painted, it really isn't a big deal to have some minor scratches resulting from the rivet hammer.  I figured that not having any scratches around the rivets would make the skin look nice until the time it was painted....

I decided to wrestle the left fuel tank together tonight.  What a pain in the ass this was.  The tank skin is fairly heavy and the ribs do not fit all that well when compared against the other parts in the kit.  The pre-punched holes combined with the relatively poor alignment of the ribs makes it difficult to cleco the tank together.  I had to tweak a number of the ribs a couple of times in order to get a half decent fit.  A little over two hours and a couple of well placed cuss words, and the left fuel tank was clecoed together.

Once clecoed together, I had to put it on the wing.  I still need to do some drilling of the z-brackets to the spar, but I couldn't resist setting it on the wing and admiring how far along I am (yeah right...  I am friggin' a long ways from done).  However, I am starting to have some big parts coming together and they actually look like parts to an airplane.  No more tripping over small parts and wing crates.  All the remaining parts sit on a couple of shelves and a table.

Just a rough placement on the wing shows me that I should be able to get a very good fit between the leading edge and the fuel tank.

Just a picture of the top side of the wing with the tank setting on the spar.  When clecoing the tank together, I ran out of clecoes (you can never have enough clecoes) so I had to scavenge some clecoes the wing skins at strategic locations.  Looking at the picture, I wonder why I ran out of clecoes???  Cripes, there is a lot of clecoes holding the wing structure together at this point.

I am also getting a good fit here on the top side of the wing.

After work, I finished up on the W-423 joint plate (leading edge side) and drilled the inboard leading edge rib, the joint plate, and the skin all to size #40.  Working on this left wing joint plate was so much easier than I remember it being on the right wing.  I set this puppy in there, took numerous measurements, drilled, checked new hole on rib, and drilled again.  Wham, bam, thank-you maam...  The joint plate was drilled and clecoed in place in about 15 minutes.

Just an view of the inboard side of the leading edge.  I think that the joint plate and inboard rib turned out better on this second wing than on the first.  It definitely went faster....  WooHoo!!!

Now, the first of the dreaded tank fabrication tasks.  The "Z-BRACKETS".  I reviewed my log entries I made for the right wing so I remember what I did and what I WISHED I DID.  The one thing I did differently is that when I measured the center of the z-bracket, I measured from the inboard side of the bracket in order to account for the thickness of the bracket web.

Right Wing Log Entry For Fabricating Z-Brackets

My drill press has a tendency to "wander" and results in inconsistent location of the holes drilled in aluminum.  Yeah, this cheap drill press is okay for wood working, but not for drilling plane parts.  In order to get a more consistent drilling location, I clamped blocks to the drill press table.  I wished I had a 'X - Y' adjustable clamp (next time I go to Harbor Freight).  To further enhance the accuracy of the drill press, I used a spring loaded center punch to start the hole.

Yeah, I know, this is some basic stuff.  For the life of me, I don't remember doing this on the first wing and I couldn't find any mention of it in my log entries for the other wing.  Anyway.... the holes on the z-brackets this time around came out great.

After drilling the one #12 hole on one side of the z-bracket flange, I used some scrap bolts and nuts I used on the right wing to secure the z-brackets to the main spar.

Tonight I decided to get the leading edge together.  I worked on this for about 2 hrs and only got 2 pictures.  How boring.  More interesting tonight was that Dan Checkoway finally updated his web site to include his experiences on their recent cross-country flying vacation.  So between drilling holes and eating dinner, I had to catch up on the latest flying news.  I thought maybe there for a while, he was done updating his web site.
Okay, back to building my own plane.  The 2nd leading edge clecoed together with no problems.  I didn't get any of the bulges on the skin I had with the right leading edge as I "adjusted" the ribs before putting the leading edge together for the first time.  When I mounted the leading edge to the spar, it fit perfectly.  No further notching required of the wing stand attach angles.

I clecoed this sucker together and match drilled all the holes.  I used the red sharpie marking method I started using on the left wing skins so that I didn't miss any holes while moving clecoes around.

Just a picture of the top side.  Tonights log entry is almost not even worth the web server space.

No pictures, but I also got the leading edge to fuel tank attach plate measured out and ready to drill to the leading edge inboard rib.

I must be have learned something on the first wing.  I didn't get this far for two hours worth of work on the right wing leading edge.

Right Wing Leading Edge (Detailed Log Entry)

Yesterday, I went to an EAA chapter meeting in Millard Airport as the theme of this months meeting was RV's.  My favorite subject!!!

It was a pretty nice turn out in that they had a RV-6, 7A, 8, and 9A there to look at.  I spent a fair amount of time looking at the recently finished RV-7A.  The 7A was from a quick build kit.  One of the things that I noticed on the quick build kit was that the inboard skin overlapped the outboard skin.  This is exactly the opposite of Van's instructions for us SLOW BUILDERS.  When I came home I had to double check to make sure I didn't miss anything in the instructions.  NOPE>>>  Outboard skin overlaps inboard skin.

After the EAA Meeting I went over to Kevin Faris's house to check out how his RV-7 project is coming along.  Kevin is currently working on his fuselage, engine, and FWF.  I enjoy the opportunity to talk with him as he is very meticulous and has great workmanship.  Just listening to how he has worked through the project so far is very valuable.   There is a ton of information another builder can offer that you can't get from reading Van's instructions or most builders web sites.  Kevin took the time to break out his Grand Rapids Technologies, Dual EFIS displays.  After a short demo of some of the features, I was extremely impressed with this system.  Big, gorgeous displays and a TON of capability.

I highly recommend checking out this system if you haven't bought all of your instruments yet.  I was leaning towards a Dynon and the ACS2002 engine monitor.  However, after Kevin's demonstration, I am seriously re-thinking that configuration.  The Grand Rapids dual displays can display flight instruments and/or engine parameters on either display screen.  COOL!!!  Especially if the right seat passenger wants to take over the controls for a while.

Their website:  Grand Rapids Technologies, Inc.

After what felt like only an hour of playing with airplane parts and checking out Kevins project, it was 1:30 AM.  We had been discussing planes for 4 hrs.  The clock must speed up when talking about RV's!!!  This happened the last time Kevin and I got together and we said we wouldn't stay out so late this time.  Okay Kevin, maybe next time :^).  Thanks again for all of your insight.  Hopefully I can remember just a 10th of what you told me.
After coming home from work with a whopping 3 hrs of sleep, Tami and I headed out to the garage to match drill all the left wing skin holes.  I did the right wing all by myself and it took me over 6 hrs to drill all these holes and move cleco's around and drill some more.  I was hoping for something a little faster this time around.
How I did this wing differently is that as I drilled the hole, I took a sharpie marker and marked the hole.

When I was done with the bottom side of the wing, Tami moved all the cleco's to holes with the red sharpie marker and then got a PROMOTION to DRILL OPERATOR.  She drilled all the second half of the holes (holes without the sharpie markings) while I fabricated the wing walk doubler.

Tami has progressed well as the junior plane builder.  She has held many positions so far including:

• Cleco plier operator
• Deburring tool technician
• Alumiprep and Alodine applicator
• Master bucker
• River Hammer specialist
• Proseal cleaner-upper  (her favorite job to date)
• Motivation Superintendent (usually using motivational tools as: Get out in the garage and finish that plane.  I want to go out to Washington and see my friend Jan)
• AND NOW>>>  Drill Operator

I had to sneak this picture of her going to town drilling the holes on the upper skin.  You don't want to overtly upset the help you know.

In just a little over 2.5 hours (5 man/person-hours), we were able to get all the wing skins drilled.  Way better than spending a whole day doing it by yourself.

A side bar picture.  This week our house is getting a new roof.  The house is a little over 10 years old and needed a new roof.  DAG NABBIT!!!  The guy that built the house stuffed the soffit area with insulation so the roof was unable to breath which caused my shingles to curl.

The new roof is looking great, BUT can you say "There lies my constant speed prop?"  Oohh well, you can't live in a plane...  Or can you???  My attention is split this week so I am not getting regular nightly progress on the wings.

The last time I went to prime some parts, I noticed that curing solution (component B) of my AKZO epoxy primer was cloudy.  The curing solution is supposed to be clear.  The primer (component A) looked "splotchy".  Since I was just doing a little touch-up, I made up a small batch of primer with this primer.

What had happened is when I went to put the primer away during the previous priming session, I placed the lid from component A (primer) on the can for component B (curing solution) and vice versa.  Well, the curing solution reacted with the primer even though they were not in physical contact.  When I opened the curing solution can, there was no primer (solution A) left on the lid.

The small amount of touch up primer I made up with this cross contaminated primer appeared to not cure like it should.  It more or less seemed "soft" for lack of a better term.  I could scrape it off with a light finger nail.
This 2-gallon kit was almost gone so I wasn't to upset about it, but I was really careful with my brand new 2-gallon primer kit.

Even the little bit of curing solution on the component B lid resulted in "splotchy" look to the primer.  AKZO epoxy primer only has a 8-hour pot life after it has been mixed.

It felt really good to be able to take the first wing out of the jig.  My plan this morning was to make the wing cradle, but after scavenging through my lumber pile today, I didn't have enough lumber to make the cradle.  Living here in "Mayberry", it meant a 1.5 hour drive to the nearest Menards or Home Desperate.  Since I am planning on going to an EAA meeting tomorrow, I decided that I would wait on the lumber and start working on the left wing.

I rounded up Tami and after about an hour of riveting, we had all the ribs riveted to the main spar.  It works really well to clamp the spar to the bench and cleco the ribs in as you go.  Crank the air pressure up on the rivet gun to set the 470AD4- rivets and bing, bang, boom...  they are permanently attached.  NO SMILIES THIS TIME EITHER.  I am a happy camper since I didn't have to drill any of them suckers out.

As with the right wing, I placed the factory rivet heads on the thinner material.  There has been some discussion on the Yahoo Group about whether or not it matters which way the universal rivets are installed.  The consensus of the group is that IT DOES NOT MATTER (unless the shop head is going to interfere with something).

Arnold, our hairball puking cat, had to inspect our progress today. 

After I got the rear spar riveted to the aft side of the wing ribs, it was time to put it in the stand.  I thought that this would be a quick evolution, but even the second time around, it took me several hours to get the wing mounted, squared, level, and the twist taken out of it.

The left wing didn't sit in the same place when I tried to line up my notches on the wing stand aluminum angles to allow the skin to be fitted to the wing skeleton.  Being smarter than I was on the right wing, I removed the wing and modified all the notches in the wing stand attach angles before I got the wing mounted and secured to the stand.  It is really hard to notch the attach angles with the wing mounted to them.

Once I got the spar clamped down to the wing stand, I jacked it up in the center with Tami's car jack.  Everything lined up like a champ.

Inboard to outboard, I am about as level as I can get.

To get the wing square, I cleco'd the bottom skins on which then aligned the rear spar.  I then went back and double checked alignment, and twist in the wing.  When I was happy, I clamped the rear spar to the brackets on the wing stand.  Then for a 3rd time after EVERYTHING WAS CLAMPED, I checked sag, square, level, and twist.

The 2nd and last wing of the airplane is now mounted to the wing stand.  WooHOO!!!!

Just a pict of the top side of the left wing.

Mounting the right wing to the stand (detailed log entry):  Right Wing Mounting To Stand

Looking at my right wing log entry, it took me 3 months +1 day to get to the point of working on the left wing.  I hope this second wing goes faster!!!  Next time>>>  QUICKBUILD.