Wings 66.5, Total 529.5 - Initial Rear Spar riveting is done!

I started and finished the right rear spar rivets tonight. Took about an hour and a half and went pretty much without a hitch. Second time around always goes a bit faster.

Here is s series of shots of the rivets:

I disassembled the 4 aileron belcrank brackets from the main wing spar and stored them away until the time comes to install the belcrank assembly. Some people get worried about the integrity of the grip of the nut plates if you screw and unscrew bolts in and out of the nut plates a couple of times. The acid test for this is to determine if you are able to hand turn the bolt or screw as it goes inside the threads of the nut plate. If you can, then the bolt or nut plate may need to be replaced. In my case there was no way that I could hand turn any of the bolts while the threads were still inside the nut plate, so no problems there. The bolts, on the other hand, do appear a bit worse for wear, so I will most likley replace them with fresh ones when the time comes to mount them permenently.

Next is a pic of the stack of ribs that will require quite a bit of prep work - edge deburring, fluting, flange straightening, scuffing, cleaning, and finally priming. Same stuff, just on bigger parts. I will be working on this over the weekend. This takes most folks at least a week or two to get all of them done for both wings.

I managed to get both the main and rear spars stored on my shelves along with both elevators. I stacked the main spars using wood spacers in between. Seems to be working out OK.

Story is always the same when it comes to riveting. It takes hours and hours of prep work, followed by maybe an hour or two of actual riveting to mash everything together. SO far I think that the rest of the wing work will go rather quickly - until I get to the fuel tanks anyway.