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I'm riveting the left wing skins on and really would like to finish completely including the wing walk doubler. I have the factory cut wing walk (which means it is cut very accurately) and am wondering what happens if I rivet this on NOW. I was hoping that since I have the factory produced parts, the wing walk doubler would be accurate enough and would not get in the way of fitting the wing. The plans say wait until you fit the wings to the fuselage before riveting this part. I just hate having "loose ends", as I already have a list of unfinished details.

What do you think? Am I just whistling Dixie here? (Old expression you young-ins probably don't know)

The wing walk doubler is over-sized and is designed to be trimmed after the wing is fitted and locked to the airframe. the edge is trimmed back to provide a close seal of the wing to the fuselage. If you rivet it now you will have to trim the walk/gap seal in order to get the wing fitted.

Thanks Bill. Yep. "Way down south in the land of cotton...."

Definitely wait. I had to cut about 1/4" off the doublers to get them to fit after wing rigging. If you rivet them first, you either won't be able to fully insert the wings for rigging, or will have to cut the doublers without knowing exactly how much to cut.

As others have said, you must wait because they are oversized.

However, the kit pieces are very precise, and because of that there is a great trick you can do when it comes time to trim. There is a double row of rivet holes that have the exact same spacing. When you go to trim the piece, attach it with cleko's one row of holes outboard from where it should be.

Then it is trivial to mark the cut line to exactly match the fuselage edge and any extra relief that you want for a rubber edge trim piece if you use one. Cut the edge and then reattach in the correct position and the edge will be perfect.

What a neat idea 982SX. To mark out mine I measured to each hole from the fuselage. It did work but. Your method is much simpler to do for the same result.

Steve 892
VH-ZSX

You said....

However, the kit pieces are very precise, and because of that there is a great trick you can do when it comes time to trim. There is a double row of rivet holes that have the exact same spacing. When you go to trim the piece, attach it with cleko's one row of holes outboard from where it should be.

Then it is trivial to mark the cut line to exactly match the fuselage edge and any extra relief that you want for a rubber edge trim piece if you use one. Cut the edge and then reattach in the correct position and the edge will be perfect.

Great idea! Thanks!

Just to drift the thread a little, but to do with wing walks..

I placed the wingwalk panel under the wingskin and added a second one under the right hand side for a future tilt back canopy.
Why? Just to neaten it up a bit and give it a customised look..