To be honest, finishing the fuel tank ribs wasn't actually that bad. I'm not sure if Van's cuts these on a newer machine or what, but there were almost no burrs to remove on the ribs. A couple of quick passes with a file and a light polish with a scotchbrite pad were all it took to get the edges smooth.
Unfortunately, the tank ribs were just as deformed as all of the other wing ribs.
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| This was one of the last ribs I finished. Obviously, this won't do. |
The fuel tank ribs have a lot more holes than the leading edge ribs, so there are a lot more places to use the fluting pliers. What's nice about this is that I could use a lot of smaller flutes instead of fewer larger flutes to straighten the ribs, meaning less overall deformation of the flanges and more precise adjustment of the curvature of the rib.
These took mercifully less time to finish than the leading edge ribs, but I'm still very glad to have them out of the way. No more rib work!
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| That's more like it. |
