After finishing the bottom skin, I took a short break then continued on with the upper skin. The task begins by flipping the stab over so the topside is now on top, the rear portion is placed flush with the table edge, and the big, unattached flap of bottom skin is waving in your face. The trick now is to bend the bottom skin down to the skeleton so that it:
1. Doesn't dimple or crimp. 2, Ends up with all the holes aligned. 3. Doesn't bend/warp the skeleton when it's set in place.
It's an easy thing to do ... if you have about 8 trained and talented friends help you. Luckily Zenith offers a more practical solution: Gently bend the skin down toward the skeleton using a 1 x 2 board to ensure it doesn't warp, crimp or twist. The weight of two 1 x 2s on the skin will keep it from flipping back to nearly verticle (its natural position) while you prepare 4 ratchet straps to wrap around the wing (and the entire table! See image 1). Once the ratchet straps are in place, you simply crank them down a little bit at a time until the holes in the skin line up with the holes in the skeleton.
I spent 15 minutes getting everything ready and 20 minutes cleco fastening the strapped down skin at the end. The remaining 2+ hours I spent screwing around with those $@#&&#$^ ratchet straps to get them to stay hooked together and to tighten up smoothly and evenly. I can't wait to do this again with the main wing!!
Two hours into the task I finally declare victory!
... and 20 minutes later it all clecoed together and those frikkin' straps are stuffed in a drawer!
