After last week’s failure with the straps I started off the day by duct taping the skin to the spar and then trying to get the straps over and around and tight. No matter how we tried we couldn’t get the straps tight enough without the metal hooks tightening around the skin which didn’t seem like a good idea. Teri was sure we could get ratchet straps without hooks but when we went to Lowes we didn’t find any.
So I skipped ahead to tackle the rear bracket. This is a pre cut item, except that it needs to have a curved edge cut out of both sides so that the elevator will fit into it when combined. The cut is marked on the bracket and it takes a band saw or some snips to cut it out. It was a nice day so I sat out in the sun (and wind) snipping away at the metal.
After some hacking away I had gotten close to the line, from here it needs to be filed to a smooth edge. I had a go with the vixen file but it needs more time (or a better implement like a Scotch 3M pad).
Later in the afternoon Teri decided to try some auto parts stores for the hookless ratchet straps and we found some. The first store only had 2 so went to another one and it only had 2 as well. Fortunately Wal-Mart supplied the last two that we needed. With the right kind of straps in hand, it turned out to be pretty simple to get the skin in place. By ratcheting the skin forward one click at a time I could get the pre-drilled holes lined up with the red lines I had drawn on the spars.
One pass through with the #40 drill bit:
and that was it for the day.