Riveting Wingtip (1.5)

1.5 hours

The last piece of this wing is the fiberglass wingtip.  I had to save this for last because it would have blocked where I put my stand earlier to wok on the wing vertically.

I picked up these wingtip light mounting pieces from here: http://www.gaugepods.com/aircraft.html 

I intend to install my wingtip lights to these things, and then attach them to the wingtips with nutplates.  That way I can put an access hole behind the mounting piece in case I need it later to disconnect the light for some reason.

I'm not very creative so I figured the best place to mount this thing would just be the center of the wingtip.  I started by marking the front, rear, top, and bottom points of this thing, using a complex arrangement of lines that I drew on my workbench.

Then I drew lines on the wingtip locating the vertical and horizontal midpoints, lined up my marks with the lines, and clecoed both parts together.

For my access hole, I traced the outline of the mounting part, removed it, and then used my most artistic skills to draw a big oval inside it.  I kept it about an inch inside each hole that I drilled.  The I took it outside and cut the hole out with a Dremel cutoff wheel followed by a little sanding drum.

I don't have my electrical connectors, nutplates, or the actual lights yet, so that was about it for now.

The last thing was just to rivet this thing onto the wing.  I was a little concerned about the stainless steel rivets used everywhere else on the kit cracking the fiberglass when I installed them, so I opted to use aluminum rivets instead which are a little more gentle.  These Avex Aluminum Rivets worked perfectly.

Now this wing is pretty much done!!!