On to the big ones!  The wings are by far the most complex and time consuming of all the flight surfaces.  Many hours will be spent on these.

Jig Construction:

Prior to starting work on the wings, a jig had to be built to keep the wing spars (big long green things in photos) in perfect alignment.  To make things more complicated, the forward and aft (rear) spars are slightly out of alignment by design.  The forward spar is 1/2" outboard of the aft spar and 60 thousandths of an inch lower.  As if that weren't enough, the whole assembly sags under it's own weight and has to be supported from beneath at various points.  All in all, quite a challenge getting everything lined up correctly.

I decided to build both wings at once to save time, so my jig had to accommodate both.  I also wanted to be able to move the jig around so I put it on casters.  The whole thing will flex because the garage Aircraft Factory floor is uneven, but as long as I mark the location of the wheels after leveling and always return to the same spot, it seems to stay level.

Cut aluminum angle and mounted aft spar brackets to jig.  The aft spar attach point is a 7/16" diameter bushing.  This point has no movement in any direction and will be used as the datum from which all leveling will be reference to.

Finished spar attach brackets and adjustment plates.  Leveled aft spars.

Installed the Root Ribs, Nose Ribs, Main Ribs, Flap Cove Ribs and Aileron Cove Ribs.  More ribs than Tony Roma's!  All pretty straight forward stuff except for Main Rib #3 which needs to be shortened because of the Aft Spar Doublers.  A similar procedure to the HS center ribs was used.  Most of the Rib flanges were square, but some had to be bent, as per the builders manual.  Also Aileron Cove Rib #1 needs pilot holes drilling thought the Aft Spar.  Both wings are now ready for drilling up to #30.

Finished shortening Main Rib #3 for the right wing and leveled both spars ready for drilling.

Drilled all ribs up to #30 size.  Tedious but straight forward enough.

Started assembly and drilling of left Strut Beam.  This is the part that goes between the forward and aft wing spars that supports the weight of the wing through the wing strut and onto the fuselage frame.

Primed strut beam components and drilled holes in right wing strut beam.  Assembled both strut beam assemblies and tightened to correct torque.  Mounted left strut beam and torqued attach bolts.

Finished installing right wing strut beam.  Started on skins after making small adjustments to the jig to make sure everything was lined up.  The leading edge skins come in three lengths and three different thicknesses, getting thicker towards the inboard end of the wing.  Pre punched holes in the skins are lined up with lines previously marked on the forward spar and lines marked on the nose ribs.  Only a few holes are drilled and clecoed, called index holes to allow any minor readjustment of the skins if necessary.  The inboard skin was quite tricky to install because of the additional thickness and tendency to spring open.

Compressor was still not working after taking it apart and checking the motor.  Didn't make much progress on the Wing.

Found another compressor this weekend to fill in until a replacement motor can be found.  It's a lot smaller so runs almost all the time but gets the job done.  Made a lot of progress on the lower skins.  Fitted the the outboard and center skins and drilled all the #40 holes, cut and fitted the strengthening gusset on the center skin and also trimmed the leading edge skins.  The skins are trimmed so that they do not overlap the main skins.  The trimming process is very time consuming because it requires first cutting the skins with snips and then filing down the remaining metal to get a nice seem between the two parts.  The only way to do this is to fit the skins, mark any overlapping areas, remove and file, refit and check, over and over again.  Not fun!  A quicker and neater way would be to mark the amount to be removed, lay the 2 skins on top of each other and aligned along the seem edges and then run along with a router and aluminum cutting bit held to a straight edge.

Continued with the lower skins today by fitting and drilling the inboard skin doubler.  This square sheet of Aluminum is fitted over the top of the inboard skin to strengthen it.  It has to be trimmed down to avoid overlapping the leading edge skin.

Installed the hat section stiffeners today but could not drill because I need someone to apply pressure on the back side of the skin.  Decided to start making some of the flap and aileron assemblies.  All the parts are pre-machined so it's only a case of laying out some rivet holes and drilling.  As far as possible I am going to make the assemblies for both wings at the same time.

Because I couldn't drill the hat section stiffeners by myself, I decided to crack on with the various bell cracks for the flaps and ailerons.  These are pretty straight forward, but many need to be corrosion protected and riveted before fitting to the spars.  I think I'll make all the little assemblies and then corrosion proof the whole lot at one time.

With help from my brother Mark, all of the hat section stiffeners were fitted and drilled to the upper and lower skins.  Many of the earlier kits had poorly formed stiffeners, but mine seemed to be quite good.  There will be some "dimpling" of the skin, but I'm not to worried about that.

Spent most of the day finishing up the upper skin hat section stiffeners and drilling the #40 spar holes up to #30.  Very time consuming and laborious.  After the holes had been enlarged, the U-channel stiffeners were marked up and cleco'd ready for final drilling tomorrow.

A bit of a wasted day today.  Finished drilling the U-channel stiffeners and then moved on to the Pitot tube installation but needed some special tools to cut the hole in the doubler for the tube support mast.  So moved on to the root rib doublers.  These had originally meant to be done much earlier in the wing build process but had been moved to later by an ANOR.  As can be seen in the photo, I will now have to remove a section of the main root rib which will mean loosing a rivet hole in the skin.  I have contacted GlaStar tech support to see what they recommend.  This is one of the last things to do on the wing so it's going to hold me up a bit.

Finally got a router bit for the pitot tube mast housing and finished that part.  Also finished the root rib doublers.  Spar caps next.

After a very long break from building due to yet another international move, building resumed in the new workshop.  Spent most of the day assembling the wing jig and leveling everything up.  The ceiling is lower so I had to reduce the height of the support posts, plus the garage floor is not level which made things trickier.  Fortunately I had a self leveling 360 degree laser that helped greatly.  After the jig was level, the leading edge skins for the right wing were re-installed having only been partly drilled previously.

Spent most of the day installing the upper surface skins for the right wing. As with the left wing, I found it quite tricky getting everything into alignment while maintaining the required 5/16" edge clearance for the rivets.  It is very important that the jig is holding the spars accurately in relationship to each other because once the skins are drilled, there's no adjustment!

The main skins and leading edge skins overlap when installed and need to be trimmed so that they do not.  A small gap of .01" is recommended but is hard to achieve in practice.  Most turned out OK but the outboard skin gap was a bit on the large side.  This is not a problem so long as the rivet edge margins are not compromised.  Using a router and straight edge to trim worked out well and gave a nice straight finish.

More trimming of the skins and leading edges.  Upper skins finished today.

Repeated process on lower skins, took up most of the day.  Fortunately less trimming required on this side.

With the lower skins installed it was time to reinforce the inboard skin with a doubler (second sheet of aluminum).  Also started on the hat section stiffeners but with no helper, had to fabricate a couple of blocks or wood to hold them tight against the spars.  Worked out quite well but maybe not as quick as with a helper.

Unlike the left wing, I decided to make the root rib doublers prior to drilling the main skins.  This would lead to better alignment.  As a short cut, I used the main rib from the left wing as a pattern for the right wing which saved a lot of time and worked very well

With the hat section stiffeners for the lower skins drilled, it was time to drill the upper ones.  This was slightly more complicated because of the spar web doubler installed at the factory causing 4 of the stiffeners to need modifying.  This was done by fabricating a wooden block to coerce the stiffeners into shape as can be seen in the photos.

Installed the spar caps on the upper and lower surface of the forward spar and drilled all holes up to #30 in the leading edge skins.  Was a lot more work than expected because each drilled hole had to be clamped either side to stop chips from forcing the components apart.  Started disassembling the right wing... deburing next, oh joy!

Lot's of deburing and dimpling today.  Managed to get all the skins, nose ribs and main ribs dimpled.  The C-frame rivet tool came in very handy for the skins and the pneumatic squeezer was great for the ribs.  I really love my pneumatic squeezer!

Spent a lot of the day dimpling the hat section stiffeners and trimming the ends straight to avoid interference with the spar rivets (as per the manual).  Having done a bit of reading on the builders groups, I noticed that some builders were flush riveting their hat sections, which although mostly cosmetic, seemed like a good idea.  It added about a day to the project but I think it will be worth it.

Finished dimpling the wing skins were the hat sections attach.  Moved on to countersinking the spars for the flush rivets.  As per the manual, I found a piece of scrap and used it to set the depth of countersink, but I must admit I found it very hard to get the right depth.  Even when I countersunk to a depth that was obviously too deep, the piece still didn't sit tight against the spar.  I have decided to do some more research and left the holes countersunk to a lesser depth (it's easier to drill more later than to go too deep!).  Got frustrated so moved onto the next stage which is all the aileron/flap hinge bracket thingymjigs. 2 had already been drilled, so I finished off the other 2 and deburred the parts.

Finished up the Aileron bracket flange attach hinge things.  Then started on the flap guides and bell cracks.  I'm doing all the aft spar attachments all at the same time, for both wings, so I can corrosion proof then all together.  Ordered some more paint from Glasair Aviation (as it's now called) and some replacement parts for the one's I screwed up.  I was also missing a section of angle (not sure how I lost that!).  Drilling the aileron bell crank took a while because of thickness and all the parts that go into it.  I'm glad I decided to hook up the bench drill press.  As pathetic and puny as it looks, it made drilling a lot easier and more accurate.  I also bought some more DX aluminum cleaner and conditioner.  I might move on the flaps and ailerons tomorrow if I get the rest of the aft spar attachments finished.

Set up the "spray booth" for corrosion proofing all the wing interior parts.

More cleaning and alodine-ing

Nice day, low humidity, so started spraying

More spraying

Started assembling the various bell-crack assemblies now they have been painted.

Riveted main rib #1 to its doubler

Riveted and installed the flap pulley

Started riveting the leading edge skins and the flap cable pulleys

Rivet and install aileron crank pulley

Fitted leading edge and started back riveting hat section stiffeners

Riveting hat section stiffeners

Finished the hat section stiffeners and the skin doublers

Well, after more than a year with no progress, finally mustered some enthusiasm to start again. The wings have just drained me, there doesn't seem to be a light at the end of the tunnel. I really wish I'd spent the extra on the jump-start wings. This is just a grind, the fun has gone.

The leading edge got whacked during it's hibernation. I contemplated ordering a new skin and ribs but decided to try panel beating it out, which worked quite well.

Drilled the doublers

Started riveting the nose ribs to the forward spar. Some are inaccessible and use blind rivets (pop rivets)

Riveting the leading edge skins and spar doublers in place. The squeezer comes in really handy for this.

Close up of some holes that will need cherry-max rivets. Fabricated the flap track stiffener brackets. Started riveting the lower skins in place.

Right wing ready for mounting on the fuselage... onward to the left wing. Set up the jig for the left wing, leveled and started drilling the spar doubler strips

Drilling the spar doublers strips.

Granny worked on dimpling the leading edge skins and I mounted and riveted the flap and aileron brackets

More pulley and bracket installation.

Back to work on the left wing. Lower outboard wing skin ready for back riveting.

Riveted the leading edge ribs to the skins. This was done partly on the forward spar and partly on the bench.

The inboard lower skin needed some more dimpling before back riveting. Got the leading edge assembly in place and ready for riveting.

Started riveting leading edge into place on the forward spar, also rivited the LE ribs to the forward spar (some very awkward riviting). The ribs in the center of the spar are completely inaccessibly and needed to be fixed with blind rivits (pop-rivit).

Final back riveting on the center lower skin. Note some corrosion on aft end of skin caused by a water leak in the garage.

Riveted all the skins in place to the forward and aft spars. Also cut the flap track clearance slots in the skins