Wings 1

Photo of right wing with fuel tank and huge birds nest from years of storage.

Both wings were rough.  The right wing had both spars broken.  The plane had been tied down outside when a wind storm broke one of the tie down ropes and then flipped the plane up on one wing.  Extensive cracks in the wood spars left the wing limp and flopping.  Also, years of barn storage had allowed birds to build nests in the wings and their excrement had corroded the aluminum ribs.

The left wing was not as bad.  There was only one 6 inch crack in the front spar and a couple of ribs had minor dents.

I decided to replace the spars in both wings.  But since I wanted to rebuild only one wing at a time (I wanted to have a factory assembled wing to refer to), I started with the left wing.

Disassembly went rather fast.  The hardest part was dealing with the hundred or so #4 sheet metal screws that held the leading and trailing edge pieces to the ribs.  Most of these little screws were badly rusted...so badly that when I tried to turn them, the heads just shredded.  I found that I could remove the really impossible screws by grinding the heads off with my hand grinder, then turning the shank out of the hole by grabbing it with pliers. 

I labeled all the parts with masking tape and a felt tip marker. 

Go to Wing 2: Spars

Return to Index