Time: 7 Hours
Today started with a couple of hours of deburring and edge finishing on all the fuel tank z brackets. I then hit them all with a scotch-brite pad and cleaned them with some denatured alcohol. I relabeled them with a sharpie and covered the flange that will go up against the fuel tank baffle with blue tape. This is the only surface that I don’t want to prime so that it can be ProSealed. Then they went to the paint table to get primed.
As the brackets were drying I started work on the 3 nutplates that get riveted to the main spar for the inboard most z bracket. The nutplates go on the aft side of the spar and need countersinks on the forward side of the spar so the rivets sit flush. I set up the countersink cage with my #40 bit and drilled them after I reamed the holes.
The only way I could rivet the nutplates was with my gun and bucking bar, and it was tight with the spar doubler plate.
Next up was to fabricate the fuel tank stiffeners that go on the bottom of the inside of the tanks. Van’s sends them in a long piece with notches in them to guide you on their shape.
I rough cut them with the snips and bandsaw.
I then shaped all the corners and debured all the edges and organized them. The brackets were also dry and so I organized them as well.
A pretty good day in the Hangar! Tomorrow I will get to match drilling the stiffeners and skins.
