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Here you see the nuts, washer and spacer that I used to make a temporary spacer. My original plan was to use particle board, as suggested by Vans. I couldn't find the right thickness, so I tried layers of medium density fibreboard and plywood, plus a thin piece of aluminum. This gave the thickness I wanted, but I found that when I torqued the bolts to hold everything snugly together that it crushed the spacer a bit, and the two parts of the bulkhead were too close together. My wing spar wouldn't have fit.

I ended up sliding 5/16" nuts, plus one washer, plus a 0.040 aluminum spacer over the 1/4 bolts. That gave me a spacing about 0.003 more than the wing spar thickness. Note: commercial nuts are not all the same thickness, so please measure things if you want to do your spacer this way.

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Each bulkhead is clamped to one of the lateral 2x4s. A string is run end to end down the centreline of the jig. Each bulkhead is aligned using a plumb bob to make sure it is not twisted, and it is positioned laterally by making sure that the plumb bob line just touches the centreline. The vertical position is set by measuring the height of the top of bulkhead from the 2x4.


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The fuselage is built upside down in a jig.

The jig is a massive structure, apparently designed to withstand earthquakes. The side rails are 16 ft long 2x6, with 2x4 cross members. 2x4s on edge are fastened to the top. The position and height of these 2x4s is critical because they determine the location of the fuselage bulkheads. The main fuselage longerons rest on these 2x4s, so I carefully shimmed them to make the tops of the cross members all in the same plane, using taut lengths of dental floss as a reference to measure from.

The firewall will be bolted to the two uprights at the end of the jig.


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I finished riveting the lower wing skins tonight! I've still got a few small odds and ends to do on the wings, but they are basically done except for installing the wing tips. I'll do those at the end of the project, because I want to do all the fibreglas work at the same time.

Tomorrow I'll rivet on the right flap hinge (I did the left one tonight) and install the anchor nuts for the access covers on the lower wing skin. I've also got to install the anchor nuts where the outboard end of the fuel tanks attach to the outboard leading edge.Riveting the RH lower wing skins.

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Progress was slow for awhile due too much time on the road, but I finally am making headway again. In Canada, we have to get an official inspection done prior to closing any major components. These inspections cost a fair bit of money, so I elected to get the tail and wings done at the same time. I finally finished all the details and had the big inspection done on 24 November 1999. The inspector, Dale Lamport, was quite thorough, but he gave it all a clean bill of health at the end, except for one rivet that he wanted me to redo.

So, I can now rivet the lower wing skins on. I started the right wing today. The most inboard part was a real pain to do because there are four ribs in nine inches to support the area where the wing walk is. You have to get one arm in through the lightening holes and between the ribs to get a bucking bar on each rivet. My right arm will be sore for days, but I managed to get all the rivets OK.

Here you see me working in the middle of the right wing, with my left arm stuck into the wing through an access cover, holding a bucking bar. The rivet gun has a paper towel "diaper" duct taped to it to keep it from spitting oil onto my work. It sure is nice to be getting to the end of these wings :-)

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I just got back Friday night from two weeks on the road. Since the last update, I finished fitting the left aileron, fitted the left flap, and fitted both aileron gap seals. The first attempt at fitting the left aileron gap seal didn't go very well. I was concerned about getting the aft edge of the upper wing skin nice and straight, so I clamped a 4 foot long level to it, to force it straight. Well, with the level clamped in place, I could no longer check that the part of the skin that extended aft of the rear spar was still nicely aligned with the rest of the skin. After I drilled all the holes I removed the level, and has horrified to find that the weight of the level had put a curve in the aft edge of the skin, and it no longer was properly aligned with the rest of the wing skin. So, I had to drill some more holes in the gap seal, get it all lined up, and redrill it to the rear spar. The second go came out OK. I've got a bunch of extra holes in the rear spar now, but they are near the centre, where the stresses are at a minimum, so it will be OK.

I've got to deburr the aileron gap seals, countersink the flap braces, prime them (and the aileron push rods), rivet the flap braces in place, rivet the aileron push rods, do a final inspection myself, and then I am ready for the official inspection I need before I can put the lower wing skins on. Almost there :-)