Top wing skin J stiffeners

I know this was asked before but I just can't find the thread. Does the J channel "long" go completely against the wing skin and the short one inside or away from the skin or does the short one tuck under the long one and get riveted completely against the wing skin?

The plans say to lay the long one on "top" but is that top against the skin at the joint or does top mean towards you since you are looking at the parts from inside the wing?

Thanks!!!


Step 1: Lay the W-00009A Wing Box J-Stiffener - Long into the J-stiffener notches in the wing ribs and cleco to the W-00003 Top Outbd Wing Skin. Rivet the
wing box J-stiffener - long to the top outbd wing skin leaving the three inboard rivet holes open. See Page 16-03, Figure 3 for rivet call-outs.
Lay the W-00009B Wing Box J-Stiffener - Short into the J-stiffener notches in the wing ribs and cleco to the W-00002 Top Inbd Wing Skin. Place the wing box J-stiffener - long on top
of the J-stiffener - short. Rivet the wing box J-stiffener - short to the top wing skins and wing box J-stiffener - long. See Page 16-03, Figures 2 and 3 for rivet call-outs.

pictures help...

This is what I wrote in my blog when I hit that point

There are two J-stiffeners in the wing and they overlap where the wing panels come together. There is a bit of ambiguity in the plans about which goes on top of which. I was checking the forums and one of the Van?s engineers noted that the long one abuts the wing skin joint and acts as a shim, so clearly, the long one is closest to the skin and the shorter one laps over from the inboard skin. Mine stiffener was about 1/32″ long, so I trimmed it to fit better.

See my entry at https://n414pj.wordpress.com/2015/10/04/a-wing-emerges/ for a picture.

It makes sense when you think about how the overlap "shims" the overlapping skins.

Thanks Pat, I remember reading your blog about it as well but couldn't find the reference again or the thread here on VAF but it's clear to me now.

Check the "Gotchas" thread at the top of the page

Good idea to scan these pages anytime you find yourself scratching your head about something. As an aside - I also check revision numbers before starting a new section and have found things that Vans clarified/changed that answered questions like this. I have also FAILED to do these things and gotten to practice removing rivets that were pounded in vain...

I was the one that added it to the gotchas sheet. Mine are installed the opposite way however I was told by Vans that it is fine that way as long as you don't get a buckle in the skin itself, and I do not at all.

A similar installation sequence in the bottom skin directions is clearer but by the time I got there, I of course knew the correct nesting.