Small cracks in ribs question

drjeff · Post by **drjeff** » Sun Jan 14, 2007 21:27

Upon closer inspection of the ribs on my champ, I have notice on a few of them very small cracks on the front upper corner of the aft spar. A friend of mine has a 1955 project at his house with the wings disassembled. Looking at his ribs, I noticed a factory support that is spot welded to, "beef" this area up. Is this a common thing to see in champ wings? It appears that from '46 to '55 they addressed this cracking issue.

As far as repairs, I took and fabricated a copy of the factory support and plan to place them on the ones that need to be fixed. If this is riveted in place, I will have to cut more inspection holes which I do not want to do. On the other hand, someone said there is a structural adhesive that is for aluminum to aluminum. If this is so, it would be great to apply this glue and clamp the part in place and let it cure.

Your thoughts will be most appreciated.

Paul Agaliotis · Post by **Paul Agaliotis** » Tue Jan 16, 2007 00:16

The cracks in this area are pretty common. I would try to stop drill the cracks or grind them out.
The later ribs had stiffeners installed and were a bit thicker.
Paul

Jody Wittmeyer · Post by **Jody Wittmeyer** » Tue Jan 16, 2007 13:03

The service letters and Lashers books describe the repair. Wag Aero had the gussets that you rivet in. I had 3 ribs cracked above the front spar and used these. I know they had them for rib that went the rear spar also.