Hrs: 4

Fixes for outside CF skin 1/3

As mentioned a few days ago; the left outside skin fits but some fixes are required to have a nice fit, this is part 1:

Hole in the CF skin and RF rib is 4.1 mm, but the hole in the RF skin is 3.3 mm. Easy fix ream to 4.1 mm:

In the bottom stringer and skin there are 3 holes that are 4.1 mm, but in the CF outside skin all holes in that location are 3.3 mm; so up-sizing to 4.1 mm was required:

Next regarding holes is another issue, in this case there is a 4.1 mm hole in the stringer, also a hole in the RF outside skin but about 4 mm out of alignment and the CF outside skin doesn’t have a hole at that location. So I decided to match drill the RF skin and add a hole in the CF skin. Match-drilling was done with a hole-finder:

Doesn’t look nice but when the hole in the CF outer skin is at the right location it’s better than just omitting this hole:

Here 2 photos of priming the mating surfaces:

The bend of the bottom flange is not sharp enough:

With the seaming pliers this was corrected:

The connection to the RF and bottom was edge-rolled:

The reinforcement bracket and the skin did not line up due to the bend of the bracket:

Either the bend is incorrect or the skin too large. Near the wing spar the alignment was good but became 2 mm at the RF location:

I shortened the skin with help of mild steel angle and the Dremel:

Another issue was near the landing gear channel; 1) the 2 upright angles needed a radius at the bottom to better match in the radius of the reinforcement bracket, and 2) the bends of the steel landinggear bracket were sticking of a bit and needed to filed flush:

And to prevent corrosion a layer of 2K epoxy primer was sprayed:

Finally for today was priming the mating surfaces on the outside where the reinforcement brackets come. First masking and some Alodine:

Finally 2K primer here as well:

Part 2 is coming soon…