I misread the plans and assumed I had to slide the top flange of the forward ribs underneath the top flange of the sub panel when I put replacement ribs in to correct a Van's assembly mistake, and thats how I drilled them in place. They should have been notched and the top flanges should have been even with the sub panel flange, of course. How stupid was that? With everything drilled, I decided to just add a shim along the top flanges of the two fuselage ribs. I cut the flanges from one of Van's mistake ribs and mounted them on top of the existing rib flanges with countersunk AD3 rivets. Dimpled and riveted them in place. I took into account the rivet pattern that the top skin would use and spaced these shim rivets where they would not interfere. As I've said in the past, its all good. Made an extension for the center rib and drilled all that in place. Why was that center rib made too short? Every RV6 I see has the same issue. Played around with the canopy top skin to see how it rides onto the sub panel. Also, took a pre-punched standard vacuum guage panel that was included in the package and made the cuts to mount it for a template. Blank poster board will get taped over it so I can arrange my panel layout. It's nice to see the instrument panel in place so I can daydream about how its all going to look.
Shim riveted on top of rib flange. Note the hinge locking pins I am using. Nice.
Center Top Rib extended and riveted together.
Nice to see any kind of instrument panel in place, even though mine will be a modern EFIS layout.
