Ribs bulging LE & tank skins

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Joe Parish
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Ribs bulging LE & tank skins

Post by Joe Parish »

Last night I noticed that the leading edge and tank skins have bulges in the skin from the ribs. The bulges are on the top and bottom of the skin from the leading edge to about the first rivet hole. When I deburred the ribs I ran the leading edge of the rib over the scotchbrite wheel several times. The only solution I see is to remove more material from the rib until it alleviates the bulge? I read on a builders site that they had some bulging but it seemed to get better after the ribs where riveted. Which I have not done yet. Did any of you have this problem and what was your fix. I now it is not unique to the 9.
Joe
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cjensen
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Post by cjensen »

Mine did that too...common issue. Some people do take a bit more off the nose of the rib. I just used the rivet gun to "influence" the rib a bit. Don't over do it, or you'll risk denting the skin and deforming the rib. Mine didn't go away completely, but I got it looking better than it did originally.
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dons
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Post by dons »

I noticed the same thing before I put the rivets in and did smooth the surfaces with some gentle bending and sanding so that the rib fingers didn't have pressure points at their edges. The trick is to get a smooth mating surface without removing too much material. I am glad I did the work.
Don Sinclair
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bruceh
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Post by bruceh »

Run the nose of the rib along a scotchbrite wheel and knock off the high spots.
Bruce Hill
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Spike
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Post by Spike »

and make sure those flanges are 90 degrees from web of the rib. Maybe even bend some of the outer edges of the flange back if you can.

Spike
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