Wing Main Spar

So the first step on the wings is to prepare the main wing spars for several other structures that will be attached to them. This is mainly accomplished by adding nut plates (some people call them plate nuts) to help attach the fuel tanks and inspection panels to the spar. To do this, we have to countersink the flange on the spar for the rivets to hold the nutplates and the screws for the fuel tanks.

I started out by adding painters tape to any gap where metal shavings could fall into. I did not want to have metal shavings fall into a gap. I do not think it would hurt anything, but easier to tape and not worry about it. The I started countersinking the rivet holes that will hold on the nut plates. Not too bad!

Next I coated with holes with a solution that will protect the aluminum and I riveted in the nut plates. There were a total of over 120 of these nut plates (remember I describe the action once, but then I have to repeat on the other wing) that I installed. Overall, very happy with the way they turned out.