Wing Skins page 4

Here is the tank cover plate in place:

This was then removed and the opening of the wing was drilled for platenuts, again using the Eric Newton Method for platenut installation.

The skins will now be removed, one at a time, trimmed to final shape, edges smoothed, holes deburred and dimpled, and primer will be applied.

Here is my setup for dimpling the holes:

The carpet covered blocks are simply 2 x 6's and are used to support the skin on either side of the Avery's long reach dimple tool.  The hammer is a 1 lb. dead blow mallet.  

The long reach dimple tool will reach all of the rivet holes in the bottom skin and root skins.  However, the top skins have some rivets that can't be reached with this tool.  The very center row of nose rib rivet holes can't be reached and also a few of the main spar rivet holes near the center of the skin can't be reached.  To overcome this, I modified one of my bucking bars by drilling a hole in the side of it to accept the male portion of the dimple die set.

The rod portion of the Avery's long reach dimple tool is removable so it was removed from the frame and the female dimple die set was put in it.  

As far as priming the skins, I have debated this for a while.  It adds a lot of weight if you really load it on.  The ribs and spar flanges have primer, so there is already a built in barrier wherever the skins make contact with the wing structure.  I believe that with the alclad skins, you really could by without priming, but as an added measure of protection, I will put a light coat on just where the skins make contact with the ribs or spars and around each inspection hole.  The rest will remain bare, relying on the Alclad to do its job.

The final bit of business before skinning is preparing the wing skeleton (spars and ribs). These were all deburred and dimpled or countersunk as needed.  The spars were double checked for level, plumb, square and with no twist present.

We are now ready to install the skins for the final time and start riveting.

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