I spent the first few hours of tonight’s session preparing the Left Rear Spar. I used a grey Scotch-Brite pad with the Alumiprep and scratched the surface of the Spar. Then, I used a 2” foam brush to apply the Alodine.
I let the Spar dry for about 2 hours and then sprayed Akzo primer. It turned out okay, but an “artist” always sees his flaws (little dry in spots). The next step is to re-cleco all the parts of the Rear Spar back together and start the riveting process.
Not the best picture, but you can see the Rear Spar and associated parts clecoed back together on the Left Wing Assembly. Now, it’s time to install lots of rivets!
For clarification, the plans DO NOT have you attach the Rear Spar Assembly to the Wing (via the Wing Ribs). This is done in the next couple of steps. They also recommend you cover the Wing Rib attach holes to keep from accidentally installing a rivet. However, I think it might be easier to install the rivets with the Rear Spar clecoed to the Wing:
1. The Wing Rib locations have clecos in them, so you “shouldn’t” rivet that location
2. It will hold the assembly in place, which makes installing the rivets much easier
Tonight is the first night I get to use my new tool from Cleaveland....The Main Squeeze Model 22. I’ve read/heard many reviews of how great the hand squeezer is, so I decided to get one. I’ve been using my buddy’s, but it doesn’t accept different sized yokes. So, if his squeezer did have enough reach, I’d have to use my pneumatic squeezer or shoot the rivet.
Not all of the holes will get rivets during this step, so I had to be careful not to install an errant rivet where it didn’t belong. This is the Outside Aileron Hinge Bracket and the associated Rear Spar Doubler. After reading other blogs/websites, I decided to put the manufactured heads on the aft side of the Rear Spar. The empty holes shown will be used to install Gap Seals in future steps of the build.
Here’s the other side of the picture above showing the shop heads of the rivets. This new hand squeezer is incredible......very minimal pressure is required to set AD4 rivets! The results are very consistent and repeatable.....very impressed!
Here are the rivets installed on the Inboard Aileron Hinge Bracket and Rear Spar Doubler. I also put the manufactured heads on the aft side of the Rear Spar. I still need to install seven rivets (of the eight) that attach the actual Bracket to the Rear Spar. They are some pretty long rivets.....AN470AD4-9! I already set the one in the Bracket in the top left side. Again, these parts were supplied in the Service Bulletin. The empty holes will also be used for Gap Seals.
Here is the opposite side of the picture above. You can see the one 4-9 rivet I set (top center), along with the other four 4-4 rivets. The two angles on either side of the 4-9 rivet were also parts supplied with the Service Bulletin.
This is the third Rear Spar Doubler on the Rear Spar. All the manufactured heads shown here are AN470AD4-4 rivets. Again, the empty holes shown here will be used for attaching the Gap Seals.
This is the opposite side of the picture above and show the shop heads. I can’t say enough about how satisfied I am with the results of the Cleaveland hand squeezer. It is so easy to use and rivets set perfectly. Very happy with this not so cheap purchase.
