21 Jun 2025 - 3 hours

I was all ready to start setting some rivets but when I got to the garage and started checking things out, I realized that I only primed the back side of the rear spars when I riveted the doublers to them. Change of plans then and slip into priming mode. The spars are too large to wash in the sink so I just did scotch brite scrubbing with water in the driveway, then sprayed with the hose to clean them off, then when they dried, I wiped them with lacquer thinner to clean any oils off of them. Fortunately or unfortunately, it was incredibly hot today (like 95+ degrees) so everything dried really quickly, but it was miserable out there.

A quick spray with primer and very quick drying in the heat and the spars were ready to go!

I took my time getting the ribs in their proper places and orientations as they are about to be attached permanently. I started by riveting the 3rd closest rib to the wing root, then the 2nd, then the closest to the root rib. They are the wing walk ribs and are really close together so this gave me good access with the rivet gun. I also did not attach the ribs to the rear spar yet as this would have made flexing the ribs out of the way to get the rivet gun in there very difficult.

After moving methodically, I managed to get all 14 ribs down on the left wing and only needed to drill out and redo one rivet where the gun slipped off the head.

I moved the left wing to the floor to make room for the right wing and started riveting the ribs to the main spar again. I only made it about half way before I started to get tired and decided to stop before I made a mistake. It was so hot in the garage, that even with the box fan blowing directly on me, it was sweaty and miserable!