Today I finished riveting the right flap. Then I frabricated and install the brass bushings on the flap brackets. After inspecting the right flap I noticed a few of the rivet hole on the outboard ribs looked cracked. After further inspection I confirmed that the inboard rib did indeed have cracks in it. I think its because of how thing the ribs were and the rivets weren’t lined up straight when I squeezed them. So I drilled out all of the rivets from the outboard rib and removed it. I inspected the left flap and noticed two holes with cracks on one of the nose ribs. Luckily I was able to enlarge the holes and use a larger rivet to remove the cracks. I placed an order with Vans. There closed until Tuesday so a replacement should be here late next week. Better to catch something like this now then after the plane is painted and it comes up during an inspection.
One of the cracked holes in the rib
Inboard rib removed
Brass bushings
Brass bushing pressed into the flap hinge
