Another update for you guys!
We've made a lot of progress over the past few weeks and we now have a regular crew of 6 to 8 people almost everyday! It's great to see people getting involved with the project once again and new crew members joining on!
Let's start with the Port Wingtip: This past week a couple of us began working on this piece once again. Our structures AME found a few cracks in one of the ribs, this resulted in the installation of a doubler to take care of that issue. We also began fitting the leading edge, we found one of the leading edge ribs had to be modified slighting so it was removed and reworked, we then had to make new brackets that attached it to the 4 stingers, once that was done it was reinstalled. We also finished off the last two top side skins which we are going to start riveting next week! The last two skins for the bottom side are in the process of being made and we're reading to start riveting into the place the two large skins on the bottom side that are on the trailing edge of the wingtip. We hope to have it nearly completed in another week or two.
The two new top skins clecoed into place. We'll also be riveting the smaller skin at the top.
The two skins which we will begin riveting on the bottom trailing edge next week.
Rib that had to be reworked.
Next up the gear doors: Two of the doors are nearly completed, a few more minor things to complete. Claire (Don, "Big Daddy's" daughter) has been doing an amazing job riveting on the bottom skins which we've decided to try to attach with mostly bucked rivets rather than blind rivets to save on cost. Once they're off of our shelf I'll get some photos of those two.
The other two are coming along nicely as well. Claire has started riveting the bottom skins on this one.
Finally the 4th door, we're in the process of making the last of the bottom skins. The top ones have been primed and are ready for installation once the bottom ones are all back drilled.
Vertical stabilzer: A week or so ago we brought in one of the vertical stabilizers, we've begun to open that one up to see how much work is required for it. We'll be building a proper jig soon to mount it in and then will be removing the skins and starting the task of restoring that chunk of the plane!
I think that's about it for now. I'll hopfully have some more news soon to post!