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Nose skins vs nose ribs

K

Kim Shumaker

I'm New Here
Was wondering if anyone besides myself has had problems getting the nose ribs to fit properly inside both the outboard nose skins and the tank skins. It seems the curvature of the skin in not the same as the nose on the ribs. This presents one heck of a problem trying to cleco everything together. I've damaged the inside of the tank skin forcing the skin to the ribs with a clamping system and have managed to enlarge a few of the leading edge holes in the process. Van's tech help advised me to use a 2 or 3 inch piece of PVC to "round" the nose but I'm not having any luck trying to shape .032 sheet metal. Please pass on any advise. Thanks.
 
Kim
What worked best for me was:
1. Spend as much time as you need to get the ribs fluted straight and the flange bent 90 degrees.
2. Touch up the rib notches on a scotchbrite wheel to make a smooth curve.
3. Remove the inside vinyl. Begin with a center rib
4. Cleco the entire top surface - starting at the nose and working aft
5. When all clecos are in the top - Align the furtherst aft hole on the bottom surface and cleco it. This is a little difficult - but the rest seem to fall in place after the first one is clecoed.
6. Use an awl to center the two holes if they are out of alignment.
7. Cleco the remaining bottom skin holes starting from the rear and move forward (put clecos in every hole)
8. Go on to the next rib - alternating between the inboard & outboard sides

A few observations:
1. The 1st rib is the hardest. After that they get progressively easier.
2. Cleco's are more resistant to bending in one direction than the other. The flat center pin is like a yardstick in the way it is easy to bend one way but not the other. This is important when your holes are not perfectly aligned and you are trying to insert a cleco. I had good luck when orienting (i.e. "clocking") the cleco in the hole to take advantage of this.

Lorin D
9A Wings
(N194LD reserved)
 
Kim, just one more thing to add, I mixed up some dish soap and water, somewhat concentrated, to make a mild lubricant and applied it to to the skin and ribs. Made a whole world of difference. Paul
 
Hello Kim,

I had the exact same problem and posted a question about it in February. http://www.vansairforce.com/community/showthread.php?t=4875&highlight=leading+edge

I ended up tapping the "rib-tabs" with a hammer and that worked really well. I used a wooden counterpart inside the ribs (the cut-outs from the Leading-edge Jig) to be able to clamp the ribs to the workbench and have something to tap against. That way I was able to make the radius of the ribs a little bit smaller and a bit more "pointy" to fit inside the skin. If the outside radius of the ribs is not the same as the inside radius of the skins, it just wont fit (You will not be able to crimp the ribs to the size of the skins or stretch the skins to the size of the ribs, if they do not match, by "prying" them together with clecos. You will just end up with enlarged holes and dented skins).

It will be easier to assemble ones you have dimpled everything, because the dimples make it line-up better.

Regards,

Tonny Tromp
 
I had a heck of a time fitting the skins & ribs, especially on the tanks. Never found a good method.

When actually clecoing the inner ribs to the tanks for riveting, it went most easily with 2 people. Stand the skin on end, start at the front, put one cleco in the top rib, one in the bottom, back to top, a second one on the bottom, then each person goes for it, one doing the top & the other the bottom. This is with Proseal on the rib, of course.

Our riveting went well. I actually had 2 guys helping. Bucky (bucking bar guy) ran the bucking bar and checked every rivet with a gage. I ran the gun and the cleco pliers. After riveting, I removed the cleco for the next hole, "Gooper" (guy #3, inexperienced) put sealant on the hole with the stub of a broken off Q-tip, then inserted the next rivet. By that time, Bucky had checked the rivet and was ready to buck the next one or was ready for me to give the last rivet a couple more hits. For the 5 interior ribs on one tank, 2 hours & Gooper got to learn about riveting.
 
RScott said:
Our riveting went well. I actually had 2 guys helping. Bucky (bucking bar guy) ran the bucking bar and checked every rivet with a gage. I ran the gun and the cleco pliers. After riveting, I removed the cleco for the next hole, "Gooper" (guy #3, inexperienced) put sealant on the hole with the stub of a broken off Q-tip, then inserted the next rivet. By that time, Bucky had checked the rivet and was ready to buck the next one or was ready for me to give the last rivet a couple more hits. For the 5 interior ribs on one tank, 2 hours & Gooper got to learn about riveting.
Click to expand...
Wow, 5 interior tank ribs in 2 hours. I'm impressed. That is what I call serious process management.
 
Thanks everyone for the replys. These skins have taken way more time than I needed trying to figure the best way. I had someone suggest I remove the two flanges on the nose that is causing the most trouble. That is what I did on the tank ribs but I don't like it and I am thinking about reordering new ribs. Last night I "rebent" the two flanges on the outboard ribs to decrease the radius of the nose. I also have misgivings about that too.

What are your opinions about how I modified the ribs? Do you think I was too drastic with the changes and I jeopordized the wing integrity? I know the skins are thick and eventually the rivets will tie everything together but I still have that feeling that replacement is best.

Brockster, I did not get your original message. Just your follow-up.

Mr. Dueck, I had already tried your method but the awl would have severervly distorted the skin hole. The distance was still too great to get a bite.

Thanks everyone.
Shu
[email protected]
 
I discovered that brute force is the way to go. My good friend, Troy Grover, provided the muscle and I worked the clecoes. He stood the skin up on end, started with the middle rib and proceeded to squeeze the skin and rib together. He has the experience and definitely the knowledge. He recommended that I rework a few things that didn't turn out like they should have. That's mostly due to my inexperience and not fully understanding the small things. Troy's website is www.grov-air.com.

Now I can continue with rest of the project. Thanks Mr. Dueck for the tip to Mike Schipper's website. You guys are a valuable resource.

Shu
[email protected]
9a wings
 
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