Wing Assembly 2

Now that both wings are together and partially skinned, it was time to take the jig down.  I emailed the list, and all confirmed that the jig can come down once you have the leading edge and top skins installed.  The way the wing is placed in the cradle, it allows easy access to the bottom opening of both wings. 

Prior to starting any other work, I decided to tape over all of the openings in the main spar.  I did not want metal shavings dropping down in the leading edges.

With both wings in the cradle, it is time to attach the flap and aileron braces.  You must first taper the flap brace so that it clears the rear spar doubler.

Next comes time to assemble the aileron brackets.  These were primed in advance, as I did not want any corrosion there for sure.  Pay careful attention, as the lowest rivet in both assemblies is flush.

Although not explicitly mentioned in the plans, you will have to drill the attach rivets for the outer five bracket to rib holes.  Pretty straightforward here:

Attaching the flap brace is pretty straightforward.  Dimple the top skin and brace to attach it.  The rear portion gets 470 rivets, so no dimples there.

The instructions are less than clear on attaching the flap brace.  You can either dimple the skins and c-sink the hinge, or c-sink the skins and leave the hinge untouched.  I spoke with Van's, and they recommended that you dimple the skin, c-sink the brace, and leave the brace untouched (so that's what I did).

With attaching brackets done, it was time to move on to the ailerons.