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Spent a good portion of today figuring out how to put this taper on the lap joint edges of the wing skins. My random-orbital pneumatic sander with a 60 grit stick-on pad worked well enough.

With all 8 wing body skills tapered, they are ready for dimpling.

If I had to pick one adjective to describe the process of deburring the thousands of holes in the pieces you see here, it would be "soul-crushing."

Anyway, they're all done now and the much more interesting process of dimpling can begin. As they get dimpled, they will be removed from this massive pile in the living room, which should make Nina happy.

Also, my canvas-print of this sunspot is awesome.

After the expensive drilling error I made in this weldment last time, I had to order a replacement. It finally came, so I set up the drill jig a bit more carefully this time and got perfect results. Yay!

"Do it nice, or do it twice. And pay an extra $100."

With only a couple minor exceptions, I have finished all non-skin parts in the wings up to the point of the final priming pass. So what is left is the process of deburring, de-vinyling, scuffing, cleaning, striping, and dimpling all of the flap and right wing main body skins.

Lest you be mistaken, let me clarify one thing right now: this is very tedious work. But I did get one aft flap skin done yesterday (everything but dimpling, that is) and here it is. 8000 hours remaining.

Looking ahead in the plans, I realized that I could do the first few riveting steps on the left flap whose nose ribs and associated bits were already primed. These are the two rod end ribs for the left flap. A bolt will go in through the hole in the lower rib and attach to the nutplate in the upper rib, forming the hinge point on which the control rod for raising and lowering the flap will connect.