Joshua's RV-9A Project

Finished dimpling the wing skeletons, and enlarged the rear spar dimples with the deburring bit as described in the manual.  Checked the left wing in its fixture, re-stringing the line along the spar rivet row, and hanging the plumb lines at inboard & outboard ends.  Leveled, measured and adjusted until the twist was zero, then dropped the LE assembly on top and clecoed in place.

Riveted the assembly to the spar, and managed to use all solid rivets.  Going in, I was convinced that I would end up using blind rivets on many of the ribs (as many 7 builders do, with Vans’ approval), but the 9 wing design must allow more space, as I didn’t have any trouble.  I did need all three of my universal-head rivet sets (straight, offset, and double-offset) in various places, and the third rib from the inboard end is a two-person job due to the reach.  (Thanks to father-in-law Bob for help driving those rivets!)  None needed to be drilled out, and the rows of skin-to-spar rivets went quickly with the squeezer.  Left leading edge is installed!

Next will be the right LE to spar, then deburr/dimple/prime the wing skins.  Still need to get a flaring tool so I can flare the ends of the tank vent lines in order to seal up the tanks.

This entry was posted on Saturday, April 18th, 2009 at 9:05 pm and is filed under Skin Panels, Spars & Skeleton. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.