15 Mar 2025 - 4.5 hours
I started out today by doing the old Q-tip dipped in spray primer and twirled in the nutplate countersinks. Quick work.
The instructions then talk about drilling a hole in the spar for the stall warning horn wiring to pass through. I'm not entirely sure if I will put the stall horn in or not but I might as well add the opportunity. Especially since the hole is already predrilled and just needs to be enlarged. So I did that and then snapped in the bushing.
I moved onto the rear spar next! I started by deburring the spars and all the reinforcement plates. The plates at the root of the spar are shared between the RV-7 and RV-8. When using them on the RV-7, they need some trimming. Here, I marked out the new shape according to the measurements in the plans.
I cut close to the lines with the bandsaw and then filed to the line and smoothed it out on the scotchbrite wheel. I used this first one as the template to mark out the other three pieces which also get this trimming.
The reinforcement plates are then match drilled using the holes in the spars. Some control tubes go through the center plate. There is an odd-shaped hole already cut in the rear spar that gets transferred to the plate and then cut out.
Shape transferred:
Cut out and put back on the spar:
I finished up by clamping the root reinforcements to the spar and match drilling those bad boys!
