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Kupe's Zodiac 650B
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Date: 2-1-2013
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Number of Hours: 2.50
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Manual Reference: 6-T-2A
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Brief Description: Bottom Skin
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This morning I popped open the box containing the stabilizer skin and the elevator. I placed the skin on the table to determine top from bottom (pretty obvious with the cutouts for the front spar attachment). I then carefully set the skin onto the already upside-down skeleton I had previously secured to the table's edge. When the skin was flat with the 2 front spar attachment points sticking through the cutouts, the front and rear spars aligned perfectly, but there seemed to be a lot of variation in the alignment of the rib holes. Using a felt tip pen, I marked through the skin holes onto the ribs to see if I could determine if there was some misalignment pattern after I removed the skin.
I removed the skin and set it aside and inspected the ribs. It seems the end flanges of the ribs are delicate and all of them appeared to be pushed toward the nose compared to the holes in the skin. Using a wooden chopstick (dont ask) I carefully pried between the front spar and where the flanges curve into the body of the rib and was able to "encourage" the ribs to reposition slightly more aft.
I performed another trial fitting after wiggling the ribs around with my chopstick (that phrase just doesn't sound right...). Every hole was visible through the skin holes, even if off center slightly. As my clecos tightened the skin down, each successive hole was more aligned so that when I had worked my way across the entire stabilizer, every hole was clearly visible and cleco-able. Image #1 shows the results.
I again removed the skin for deburring and anti-corrosion coating. I received a can of Cortec from Zenith this week and it is a great improvement over the rattle-can zinc phosphate I've been using. No fumes, very little odor, no spraying, cleans up with water, goes on smoothly, dries clear. That's the stuff for me!
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The skin, successfully attached during trial two after the chopstick treatment.
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All deburred and freshly painted for final assembly tomorrow. The Cortec is milky white when wet.
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