Holy crap…its been a LONG time since I did any real work on the RV-7. Like nearly 7 months. Life’s been a bit busy, I bought a 1973 Cessna Cardinal 177RG and have been flying the wings off of it, and that has taken up some time on the build, in addition to work, and family. But, with the daylight hours dwindling, and flying weather getting sparse, its back to building!

Anyways, the last place I left off, I had to finish up Alodining some wing ribs, and then get my wings in their stands. I ended up going down to Aircraft Spruce a few months back (In the Cardinal of course!!) to pick up some more Alumaprep and Alodine. So I mixed it up tonight. Here is what I am using for the mix ratios:

Alumaprep bath:

1 Gallon of Alumaprep 33 concentrate mixed with 3 gallons of distilled water. Makes 4 gallons.

Rinse the parts off to get rid of dust and grime. Scuff with maroon scotchbrite a little if needed during the rinse. Then soak for 7 to 10 minutes in the bath.

Rinse parts in cold water to remove alumaprep.

In the photo above, I had to use a rib and a glass jar to help hold down the other 6 ribs. The bubbles from the Alumaprep during its cleaning causes the aluminum to float!

Alodine bath:

1 Gallon of Concentrate Alodine mixed with 2 gallons of distilled water. Makes 3 gallons.

After the alumaprep bath and rinse, soak parts in Alodine bath for 7 to 10 minutes. Remove and rinse in cold water to remove excess alodine and then let air dry.

And the obligatory photo that shows to the FSDO that I am actually the sucker building this plane…..apron,, gloves and all. I did remove my safety glasses for the photo though.

I was able to get all of the wing main ribs and wing end/nose ribs done and set out to air dry. It was good to get back down here and work on this project and start making progress again. I have decided to not spray primer on the ribs, except maybe the nose ribs. I think I will prime them since they will be fully enclosed and potential traps for moisture. Here’s how they ended up:

And here is the entire photo album from tonights work. Not many photos since it was just alodining. I think I will start working on the wing stands next.

Google Photos Link: https://photos.app.goo.gl/e5yTndwHvwCXRT6L9

Hours Worked: 2

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