Finished up the right wing bottom skin! The main spar rivets on the outboard skin were relatively easy to reach through the access panels and lightening holes. The inboard spar rivets were another matter. The inboard ribs (wing walk area) are very close together, and even though I could reach inside the lightening holes at the end of the wing, it was tough to get my hand at an angle to hold the bucking bar. The wiring conduit across the entire wing added a little complication too. I had to swap between a couple of different bucking bars to get at the rivets that are trapped between the conduit and the skin in a very small space. In the end, doing the whole bottom skin solo wasn't nearly as bad as I had anticipated though. I actually think it is probably easier than doing it with someone else. When bucking blind, the ability to get the feedback in the gun and bucking bar makes a huge difference. I think only feeling one or the other would end up in a lot of under/over bucked rivets.
I got notice that the canopy side rail shipped today, so after I finished up with the wing I moved the workbenches back and cleaned up the shop. I'll switch back to working on the canopy while I still have warm weather. The frame will have to be primed and painted, and the canopy itself needs to be cut. All of that is far easier with warm weather, so I'm going to attempt to get it done in the next few weeks. I don't need to get the canopy fiberglass done, just the overall fit and attachment to the frame. I need to order some Sika adhesive. I've decided to go the route of gluing the canopy onto the frame vs drilling the plexi and screwing it on. This was a crazy idea 25 years ago, but in that time it's become a fairly standard approach and gets rid of one more reason for a canopy to crack over time due to 100 holes drilled into it.
