Primed Some LE parts and Reassembled and Mounted it to the Wing - FINALLY - PROGRESS!

It's been a long time comin', but I finally made some progress today. I put aside all house crap and other interruptions that have plagued me in recent weeks, and with weather also in my corner I managed to get some airplane building done today. Nothing earth-shattering mind you, but for me it was substantial.

Here is the left wing LE skin, ribs, and subskin all primed:

I used the same Akzo-Nobel 2-part epoxy primer as I did before, using the same trick I previously wrote about by using a plastic turkey baster to meter out the 20 ounce mixture from the larger paint cans. I knew I needed a bit more primer than my touch up gun could hold, but I wasn't sure exactly how much would be needed. For this job I used my $15.00 HF HVLP spray gun as shown below. It has a 20 ounce cup, so in addition to delivering the primer a bit better than the touch up gun, it also holds more. I mixed the full 20 ounces, mixing 10 ounces each of the primer base and the hardener. Waited the required 30 minutes after it was mixed and in the cup, and then did the deed.

I used my large paint box, but I did not put everything on the box at once. I did the ribs and the subskin first, and then removed those parts and did the LE skin. Why? because  I only wanted to prime the inside of the LE skin, and did not want to get any primer on the outside of the skin. Although it would also fit on the larger paint box, with everything else, there was a risk of over spray getting on the outside of the skin, so I primed it separately. I ended up only using about 17-18 ounces of primer, so at least I now have a marker for how much material a full load of primer will cover when  using the HVLP gun.

I really do like the HVLP gun. This next pic is what I will call a "self" portrait. What a great likeness, don't you think?

Actually this was my test sheet from the post-it poster sheets I have used in the past. The HVLP gun has a larger spray pattern that is perfect for larger parts. At the bottom you can see what happens if you don't keep moving the gin across the surface to be painted. I also liked that the fact that I did not need to make any of the fine tuning adjustments that this gun has for air pressure, paint flow, and paint pattern.

The next task was to reassemble the ribs and LE and remount it to the wing. This was a bear to do, especially when I had to re-cleco the two inboard ribs that lay underneath the subskin and the outer skin.It took me quite a while to get the LE reassembled and remounted, but I managed to do it.

This next series of pics shows one of the things that needed to do next - redraw the patterns for the new access hole and mounting flange on the now-primed subskin.

The first pic is after I matched drilled the holes for the mounting flange of the new access panel from the outer skin to the subskin, and then I clecoed the mounting flange to the outside so I could trace the necessary patterns onto the subskin.

I then drew the inner and outer outlines of the new mounting flange onto the subskin and removed the mounting flange. I now know where I have to remove material for the new access panel opening.

And a couple of notes added about radiuses and where to remove metal after the next dissasembly.

Hopefully this now starts to make some sense when I tried to describe this process in several previous posts. Pics are always better. From the above pics you can see the area that that new access panel mounting flange is supposed to occupy, as well as the remaining area from the old access panel opening that I still need to figure out how to close up. The challenge is how to blend the lower right corner where the new mounting flange goes with the old hole with the odd shape that now has to be closed up in the proper places.

So I've got some more math and measurements to make to continue this work, and, sadly-yes, I will need to remove and disassemble this all over again for the 80th time to debur the new holes and cut lines, so I'm not quite out of the woods on this just yet, but it will get done. We'll see just how much I get done before leaving for Oshkosh in 2 weeks.

Not shown in the above pics is the fact that I can now also match drill the 2 rear rib flange holes in the outer rib flanges that were added to the custom 408 rib from long ago. I'm a little worried about edge distance being correct on that one because I think I trimmed too much material from the flange that sits on the wing spar, but there is only one way to find out. Since these are the outer flange holes I will also probably have to dig out my 12 inch long #30 drill bit. If I do it right, the holes should have just enough edge distance. If not.......Well, let's just not go there yet.

Felt good to do some work on the bird again. These LE mods are kicking my ass, but as long as I still have some ass to kick, I'll keep going.

KPR.