Skinning Left Wing

This is a condensed repeat of my September 17 and October 17, 2014 posts (Right Wing Skins On and Big Hole, Small Wires) except that I skinned the left wing.  The three bottom skins are on, the three top skins are on, and the top wing-tip skin is on, so that should be close to about 2,000 rivets pulled.  2,000 seems to be about the number of pop-rivets that a $9 Harbor Freight hand rivet squeezer is good for before it breaks or wears out.  It's still a good deal though.  I'll just keep returning it when it wears out and exchange for a new one.  The lady at HF didn't even ask for the receipt.

Got some help from a buddy for an hour or so setting up and squeezing rivets Christmas eve.  Incidentally, Phil's the guy who built the tandem recumbent bicycle hanging in the background.
He's also a master kayak builder.  Those skills will be handy when it comes time for the fiberglass work on the wing tip lights and engine cowling.




Next on is the bottom wing tip skin.  Before I started prepping the skin for installation (by bending each of the tabs at various angles, and sanding smooth the edge of the skin), I cut out the Vans-prescribed hole for the navigation and strobe light wires.  A big hole for three small wires.  It's not easy cutting a hole like that, even with the pneumatic nibbler, but eventually I snipped enough away one small piece at a time to finish the hole with a two-inch sanding drum attachment on the drill.

I did the tab-bending work on the wingtip bottom skin in the kitchen so I could sit down.  It went much faster this time around, although still kinda tedious.  Perhaps because I wasn't as fussy about getting the bend angles exact like I did on the right wing.  To get the correct angle of bend I used a cheap protractor to cut business cards into triangles to use to check the bend angles on the tabs, which range from 16 to 116 degrees depending on its location.

RV-12 BUILDERS TAKE NOTE:  While at the work bench (which in my case was the family dinner table), I recommend not bending that last tab as instructed in the plans.  Instead, cleco the wing tip skin on and the tip closeout piece and mark where the bend line should be as shown in the picture to the right.  Then apply the bend. It's the only way to get the bend line exactly where it should be on the first try.

Voilà! Both wings are now skinned!  I should order the next kit before prices go up.  Or start my tax return.  Or both.