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I was talking to along time friend the other day who I hadn't spoken to in a long time.  Like me he is a huge aviation buff and we know each other from our time with the OPP.

Inevitably, the topic of my build came up and I mentioned this blog which reminded me that I need to stay on top of keeping it current, especially if I'm suggesting others read it!  The last installment was the culmination of my trip to the Zenith weekend - with that documented I can move on.

Lots of progress to report on the 701 wing repair and extension.  The pictures are limited and maybe slightly out of order, but the captions will explain what is going on.  This took place over several trips to the shop and a lot of head scratching over the past couple of weeks!

With the top skin fitted and awating final rivets, we flipped the wing over to work on the lower skin and tip

After fitting the skin and drilling for final rivets, including the splice joint we had to determine the fit of the outboard flap pickup - this proved challenging but we got it lined up better than the original builder

The repair, extension and new trailing edge on the flap shows well in this picture

Flap lined up and held in place with cleco clamps. Fit is excellent.

With the trailing rib in place the lower skin can be slotted and final fit can be done.

With the upper and lower skins now in place we can fit the wing tip skin - it wasn't damaged in the crash

Skins trimmed to fit - new attach strips had to made with the correct bend/curve and match holes

Final rivets completed and wing tip skin stripped of paint. Fit is excellent - we'll wait to flip the wing to final drill the tip skin to the upper wing skin.

Wing root end, lower side of the wing. Cut and fit another skin, leaving an opening for the fuel tank - all the hard work to make this part of the wing straight and solid earlier is paying off now.

Like the outboard end, a slot needs to be cut for the inboard flap arm.

I've been reading online that a small spiral bit used for making cutouts in paneling and drywall can be used on thin gauge aluminum too - I have one of these and the Dremel tool to drive it

The collar of the Dremel makes a good guide for cutting straight - but I wanted to test this theory on a piece of scrap before using my good wing skin

A matching scrap piece of 016 aluminum - I clamped it to the workbench and drilled a pilot hole.

The pilot hole is exactly the right distance so the collar of the tool against the wood "clamp" bar - this makes an excellent straight edge to work against.

A fairly clean slot that can be sanded smooth as part of deburring.

After careful measuring, I cut the slot in the wing skin. Again, straight as can be. I used the same speed settings on the Dremmel but travelled slower this time. The result was somewhat cleaner. I'll practice some more when it comes to cutting the slots for my wings when the time comes.

Skin back in place and pilot drilled. The fit over the flap pick up is real clean and tight. The new skin showing over the fuel tank bay is a replaceable panel. We'll be mounting it using riv-nuts (more on this later) that will allow future servicing of the fuel tank should the need ever arise. You can sort of make out the gentle folds that go corner to corner to help rigidity of the panel as there isn't much room underneath for structure between the panel and the tank. The panel edges also are bent slightly down to help tighten the panel against the surrounding wing skin when it's installed. Again, I'll try and get some more pictures when we get ready to install this.

Overall, very happy with the progress on this wing.  Next up will be the nose and new root skins.  These too will need slots cut in them for the slat attach brackets.  With the extension, we'll actually be using two sheets as the wing is now wider than an standard sheet of aluminum.

Still some work to do, but excellent progress - very happy.

​Thanks for reading and stay tuned for more in the coming days.