Left Flap Assembly

Time to assemble the left flap! I started by riveting the hinge and nose rib assemblies together.  These are the nose ribs that I ended up replacing, so I will have to drill the top flange holes to the nose skin once I start putting it all together.  When you replace parts you realize just how great it is to have machine punched/drilled parts.  The holes matched up with the hinge holes perfectly.

The nose ribs and hinge then get riveted to the spar.  For the outboard and inboard hinges, that also means riveting the main ribs at the same time.  There were a few rivets that were awkward to rivet with the shop heads on the same side as the others, so I just flipped the rivets around depending on the area.  For places that will be hidden, I'm really not concerned about consistency just for aesthetics.

The main ribs were next.

I clecoed the top skin in place and then clecoed the top nose skin on to match drill the skins to the new nose ribs.  Then I pulled the nose skin off and dimpled the new holes in the nose rib flanges.