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[January 5, 2006]


I worked on the left stiffeners tonight. The left side uses 15 stiffeners total. Some of the work is verbatim from the right side, but there are some H pieces that are tapered the same on both ends (they fit around the trim tab) and the JKL pieces need to be cut shorter. These pieces are easily identified because they do not have holes in the tips of them - they are drilled later using the skin's drill hole as a pilot. I cut these JKL pieces shorter, then took the end to the scotch brite wheel to smooth it off. Whenever I cut I leave about 1/32's to reduce via filing or the bench grinder. I matched up the DEF pieces to the JLK pieces and marked where the long taper met the top. Since the JKL pieces are shortened, the notch on the top of the flange indicating where the tape ends is not valid. I matched up the "thin" ends of the two pieces and marked where the peak will be. On the JKL pieces I then marked my lines, checked it against the DEF stiffeners, then cut. Finally, I took everything to the scotch brite wheel. This is pretty confusing to put down in words...the pics should help out.

stiffener F is in the rear, L is in the front... L is made from a F by shortening it to the described amount on the diagram.


another shot.


To figure out where the taper is, I matched the "skinny" sides up and clamped.


Since the D piece is inside of the L piece, the D piece sticks up. I put a mark where its peak is to indicate where my cut ends. Once all of the pieces were marked, I measures the distance between the factory notch in the flange and my sharpie mark. Each pair was different - anywhere from 23/32's to 25/32's.

The other end I more of less just eyeballed. Once you do all of the right hand ones, you pretty much know where the other end needs to be.

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Last Modified: August 13, 2023