I got an early start today to beat the heat. I only had the two RHS skins to prime. Most of the hours spent were getting the booth set up and everything ready to start working on the parts. I can't keep the booth up for more than a day. Overall, today went quickly as I'm starting to develop a good rhythm to my priming sessions.
I was very careful to align the masking on both skins where the foam ribs will be. As you can see in the photo, it was perfect.
Spraying was a bit weird today. I never could get a decent fan pattern despite using a new 1.4 mm end piece and making endless adjustments. I think I used as much primer getting a decent setup as I put on the parts. It never was very good, but I managed to get a decent coat regardless. I may have gotten a bad tip (my spray gun is a 3M PPS system with disposable tips).
When I removed the masking I noticed that the placement of the bare areas will cause some interference with shop heads of the rivets thru the rear spar. A close look at the plans shows the bare areas always between the rivets, but using the dimensions in the plans causes some interference. I'll have to do a little more carving on the affected ribs to make everything fit. I wish Van's would've noted that is the goal in the plans. I could've made some adjustments to avoid this situation. I don't believe the exact placement of each rib is that critical as long as they're more or less evenly spaced.
Scuffing complete. Checking the masking to make sure they align properly.
All elevator parts are now primed. Glad that's over!
Looks like when I bond the foam ribs in place they will interfere with some of the shop heads.
