Aileron Gap Flaring & Top Skin

I'm installing the aileron gap fairings and running into an issue with the top skin. The gap fairing pulls the top skin down slightly, but where the fairing stops there's about 10 inches of top skin that's not pulled down. I've seen it posted elsewhere but haven't found a resolution beyond bending the rear spar, which seems excessive. Should I just gently "bend" the 10 inches by hand to match the rest of the skin contour? Also, should I continue the bend along the top skin at the flap, or just let it remain as is?

Top skin

Jim wait till you have flaps mounted. As flap comes to rest position it should slightly touch top skin. Then the two top skins need to match to make things look proper. If you absolutely need to bend skins to match,do it then.Just finished mine yesterday and all turned out fine. No bending required. So keep going. Mike.

Thanks!

Thanks, Byron, probably a good idea. I'll go ahead and rivet the flap brace and gap fairing to the rear spar, and then work on hanging the flap and aileron to see how the top skin fits before deciding how much to bend the spar.

I did more searching and finally found some info on "underbent rear spar," so at least it's not an uncommon problem. I'll do some more research on using a slotted 2x4 to bend the spar flange when needed. I'm sure there's a blog out there somewhere with a good picture!

Thanks, again.

Problem Solved

Well, heck, patience was never one of my virtues, so after reading about using the slotted 2x4 I made one patterned after the metal tool I saw posted elsewhere and gave it a try. It actually worked well, much better than I would have expected with the skin riveted to the rear spar. Now my gap fairing fits well and the rear 1/4 of the top skin is flat per the airfoil. So, problem apparently solved.

I think the bend in the rear spar flange happened when I used my squeezer to rivet the rear spar to the top skin, so for those that follow be aware of this. Maybe it would have been better to buck those rivets?