Chapter 6,7,8 Part Prep continued. Ruined Front spar

I have been prepping the parts for Chapters 6,7,8 so that I can prime before the weather gets too cold.

Things have been going along well, except for tonight. It never ceases to amaze me the stupid mistakes I can make despite reading closely.

On 08-04 Step #2, you clamp the spar cap onto the front spar and then you are supposed to match drill the #30 holes from the spar into the cap. The cap is supplied undrilled.

The flange of the spar has #40 holes as you would expect because of course the skin will mate up against it and all of those rivets are AD3 Rivets.  I drilled the first four holes as #30 on the FLANGE rather than the web of the spar. I did this even though the predrilled holes in the flange are #40 and I even stopped to think about it as I drilled those up to #30 and right into the spar cap.

Nothing that $60 worth of parts + I am guessing another $30 of shipping won't solve...


Sigh.....

I am not even going to bother contacting Vans on this one because I think that the edge distance for a #30 AD4 rivet is more than the 3/16" that is available.

For now I will just finish the prep on the Rudder and Vertical Stabilizer and prime and assemble those. I will wait on the reorder to see if any other parts get messed up while I put the Rudder together.

Edit:  I actually went ahead and ordered the part....  I was quite wrong on the shipping..  For the $60 in parts it will be $110 shipping. Contemplating my options including waiting for the fuse kit and having it shipped with that. I would complete the Horizontal Stab prior to working on the fuse. Very disappointing and a really silly mistake to make on my part.

Tail Kit part prep - Sections 6-8

The wings are now in storage, and I have re-arranged my workspace and am working on the tail.

 I am back to prepping parts, deburring, match drilling, and generally getting ready for primer. Since it is getting colder and some of these assemblies appear to go together quickly I am prepping the Vertical Stabilizer, Rudder, and Horizontal stabilizer together.

Unlike the wings where I lacked familiarity I can literally see the parts and envision the path to success on the tail kit. The tail cone is the uncertain piece however all of the other surfaces I think will come together in a straightforward fashion.

I did read on VAF that some Horizontal stabilizer rear spars had holes which were mispunched so I quickly clecoed the spar to the skins without all the other pieces and from what I can tell all the holes line up.  Here is a quick photo of that.

And one of the vertical stab.