Gap between Outboard leading edge and tank leading edge

I have my outboard leading edge and my tank leading edge clecoed on the spar, but have a small hight difference at the very tip of the leading edges.
Basically I have trouble pulling the skin tight enough over the outboard closing rib of the wing-tank, therefor it sits about 1mm higher.
How do you guys get the rib in tight will riveting it, especially when you add a bunch of pro-seal in between. You use ratchet straps, a rubber mullet, ..??

Question #2
Can I drill the tank mounting holes to the W-423 connector plate for the platenuts after riveting the tank and outboard leading edges. It seem like I would have more control of getting the edges to meet.

Christian

I made sure today that there is no debrie, also bent the flanges of the rib down a bit more, but am still having trouble stretching the skin tight enough across the rib. Any suggestions ?

you've got the middle of your spar raised too high, if you lower the middle to a level plane, it will all tighten up nicely

alternatively, lower it below "level" if needed so you can cleco it all together, then resupport the center section

The spar is at the right hight now. We finally figured out that it looks like the leading edge skin got bend just about 2mm or so to steep, and it needs to be a little duller at the top and that extra skin needs to be pulled towards the top side of the wing. This might have happened during numerous transports of the skins.
The trick now is to carefully re-bend it just enough for the bump to disappear.

Here are a few pictures that show the bump on top and the gap at the bottom.

keep building

Your tanks look similiar to what mine looked like at that point. Before you go bending and rebending the skins to try to get them to match I would drill and dimple the screw holes on the skins. I bet once the screws are in place they will help pull everything in a little tighter. Also, don't forget the tanks skins are thicker than the LE skins so you will always have a bit of a lip, an edge roller will help with that some.
GL
Brandon

Wing skin gap

Pls shoot me an e-mail or a PM with your e-mail address. Have some pix I want to send you.

Everything looks good to me. After riveting skins will level nice and tight. Been there.

I think you are right, if I pull down the tank pretty tight before I drill the holes in the leading edge connection plate it should hold it down.

I also just clecoed the top wing skins and it looks like I have a 1/32 gap between the skin edges there. But am already stretching to get the clecoes in the very bottom (trailing ) spar.

Ratchet straps

Back before prepunched kits I believe the SOP was to use ratchet straps to pull the leading edge skin tight against the spar. I had the same trouble you are having and I borrowed the idea to pull the leading edge tighter to the spar before I drilled the skin to spar holes. I think I used three or four straps aroung the wing. Be sure to place a 2x4 or something on the rear spar so you don't bed the aft end of the top skin.

Whats Van's specs on max gap distance between leading edge and trailing edge skin. I am down to a max of 1/32nd and less.
I guess depending on how hot it is when the guy sheared the metal, and how warm it is now makes a bit of difference too. I am just wondering if they have a spec for that. I`ve looked at some RV pics online, and thought I saw much wider gaps.