Brief Description: Large close tolerance wing bolts
Spent some time today polishing and fitting the larger close tolerance wing bolts. A little polishing with 800 grit emery cloth makes them fit the wing spar holes much better. They still require Boelube and some tapping but they can be inserted without heavy blows. If the wings ever have to be removed once installed, I think it might be possible to get these bolts out. While the shanks are highly polished and the spar holes are anodized, I still plan to do some research to see if there is any way to add some corrosion protection without increasing the diameter of the bolts.
The four longeron gussets shown below were also radiused as appropriate to mate with the flanges on the forward center section bulkhead. The fit seems ok but will be checked again when the assembly is clecoed together.
I also double-checked the wing spar thickness against the maple spacers to be used in construction of the center section. My measurements with a dialed caliper indicated the spars are a few thousandths thicker than the 1-7/16 or 1.438" noted in the plans. While it can't be seen very well in the image below, there is indeed a very slight mismatch when butted up against my spacers. This little test confirms my caliper readings. I still plan to add some metal foil tape to the spacers to increase their thickness slightly before assembly the center section. I currently have some aluminum foil tape (3.6 mils) and have ordered some stainless tape (4 mils) to arrive in a day or two.
