Brief Description: Leading edge assembly & DRDT-2 repair
Taking a short break from the tank fabrication, I turned my attention to the leading edge assembly for the starboard wing. It was removed from the wing and disassembled. The plastic protective coat was removed and the skin and ribs were dimpled. Mid way through the dimpling, the ram stop on my DRDT-2 dimpler broke. The ram stop is a steel roll pin protruding about 1/8" from the back of the ram mechanism allowing the lever to just go slightly past center. The roll pin broke off and could not be drilled out due to its hardness. I had to fabricate a steel bracket to provide a new stop for the ram/lever mechanism before continuing with the dimpling. I also had to make some new nylon spacers to position the ram stop. Image 2 below shows the modification. I suspect most DRDT units will experience this failure. The original roll pin stop just takes to much of a beating with the repeated dimpling.
After dimpling the skin and ribs, I dimpled the spice joint plate and drilled it for the nutplates. The dimpling for the nutplates was also completed. I plan to prime the joint plate before riveting the nutplates.
