Everyone hates rib prep. Everyone. Even me from 15 years ago. But I decided to bite the bullet and get started on it today. Mostly because there was nothing else I could do that productively got me toward skin riveting.
Why am I so set on skin riveting? I have a friend coming over this weekend who can help me rivet and I don’t want to miss the opportunity.
So rib prep is basically the following steps:
- Matchdrill (final-size) with the skins
- Disassemble
- Deburr all holes
- Deburr edges, corners, and lightening holes
- Dimple holes
- Scuff everything with maroon scotchbrite
- Clean with dishsoap
- Dry with Acetone
- Prime
I decided to do 3 ribs at a time. There are 14 ribs on each wing, so I did 5 batches (the last batch was two). Here’s the first batch being primed.
After drying, I grabbed some of the snap bushings I purchased and
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As a reminder from this post (Wing Ribs, Tiedown, Front and Rear Spar Work – Bullseye’s RV-8 Build):
The first 11 ribs (counting from inboard to outboard) have two tooling holes in the front part of the web (just behind the main spar). The bottom hole is small, and the middle one is 7/16″. I decided to enlarge the bottom hole to 3/8,″ duplicate it on the top side, then and add another hole to accommodate the “Black Snap-In Bushing .4375″ID x .625 “OD.” That’s a 5/8″ hole instead of 3/4”.
For the inboard ribs, 4 holes. The last few (4 or so) ribs only have the 5/8″ hole and two smaller 3/8″ holes. I did forget to order more BUSHING SB437-4 Snap Bushings, so I borrowed them from the pitot line bag.
3.5 tedious but fulfilling hours today on the ribs.
