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Here's our special aileron skin pulling tool. The 2x4 on the right has three vertical holes drilled into it that mate up with 3 of the 5 grommet holes in the end of the aileron. There's also 2 horizontal holes drilled through the 2x4 on the right. The long pieces of threaded rod slip through them for pulling the skin. Note the generous use of fender washers to spread out the load of the pulling action. I also used a couple of old auto alignmnet shims, I had around, to take up some space. The 2x4 on the left has only two holes. They are positioned offset toward the bottom of the 2x4 and accept the threaded rods |
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Here's what the puller looks like when it's attached to the aileron skin. Just start incrementally tightening the pulling nuts and the skin will inch into position. No stress. No strain. Joanne would slather the aileron with a bath towel soaked in water as hot as you can stand. This helped the skin "relax" a bit and acted as a precaution against tearing. |
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Here's the end result of a pull. The object of the pull is to get the wrap around portion of the aileron skin into position so that you can secure it with tie-wraps. |
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Once the tool is removed, just fold the wrap-around flap around and secure it with the tie-wraps. Notice that our pull left absolutely no gap between the wrap-around flap and the rest of the skin. In fact, we're a little past nuetral. |