A Little Prep Work

The weekend is coming and I am getting ready for another primer-shooting session. As the days got rather short now in Southern Arizona, working during the week became less enjoyable as I have to use shop lights to light the working area if I can't do the job inside the workshop. This is certainly the case with the prep work as I don't want to deal with water and strong bases inside.
I found a workable arrangement putting the light far enough away so the bugs wouldn't bother me while still providing enough light on the part I'm working on.
Here's the stack of nose ribs for the left wing, plus one drilled rib for the right wing with its hinge bracket doubler. I do this in matching pairs so I don't mix them up when I remove the markings during the prepping and priming. After the primer dried they will get marked again so I know which bracket was used to drill which main rib. That way they should go together perfectly.


After two hours of scrubbing and rinsing I got 6 nose ribs done. Here are four hanging on the drying rack.


Van's has already sent the replacement main ribs that I had ordered late last week. I quickly deburred those two main ribs and re-completed the stack of main ribs that shouldn't get any modification. So the ribs for the right wing are also ready to go through the priming process. Pretty good timing as this will come next after I put the nose ribs on the left wing.
That is if I don't deviate from the plans that would like me to build both wing skeletons first before starting the skinning process. I think I don't have the room to store the relatively fragile skeleton of an unskinned wing while working on the other. At least not safely. So I think about completing one wing before starting to work on the other one.
I'll decide that when I can see how wobbly the skeleton is. If it is sturdy enough to sit in the wing cradle I can stick to the plans.