Again, I’ve done a poor job of updating in a timely manner.  This post encompasses a couple of sessions from last weekend.  During this time I have continued to prepare all of the wing skins for priming and riveting to the main skeleton.

I began by completing the deburring of the leading edge skins and ribs.  I also prepared all the surfaces for priming with scotchbrite pads.  When I scuff the skins, I use the grey scotchbrite pads, which are less abrasive than the maroon ones, and I use a very light and quick touch.  The idea is to scuff, but not penetrate, the alclad. Leaving the alclad in place should increase corrosion protection. 

Next up I set about removing the blue vinyl from all eight skins.  I completely removed the vinyl from the interior surfaces that will be primed and using the soldering iron I removed the areas around the rivet holes on the exterior skins. 

In the process, I’m trying to increase my use of checksheets.  As such, I put the following list of to-do items on each wing skin, so I can be sure not to forget something like deburring the edges. 

With all of the skins removed the wing skeleton looks naked!

Finally, I began deburring the wing ribs. I deburred the outsides of all the ribs.  I’m going to wait before I debur the insides.  I lost my good deburring bit, and the countersink I’m using doesn’t work well if you are at an odd angle… and its a little bit slower.

I ordered a new countersink bit (2 actually) and I also put in an order to Aircraft Spruce for the Gertz Pitot tube bracket.  I’m still considering whether or not I should install the landing light mounting brackets in the leading edge now or wait until I have the lights in hand and retrofit the leading edges.  I made a post on Rivetbangers… so we’ll see what the guys think.  I’ll post the thread here in a later post.  Cheers -PLB