I built up the courage to fix the oblong hole in the spar tonight. I bolted the whole assembly together including the aileron brackets. I then cut a piece of oak to fit between the brackets and clamped it tight to ensure nothing moved to drill the 1/4" hole for the AN4 bolt. Lots of time to set it up, but I wanted to make sure that there was no mistakes!
I then set up the drill press. (no way that I am doing that by hand every again!).
Success, the hole came out really nice. I don't think I'll have an issue with edge distances but I will wait to hear back from Vans.
I received confirmation from aircraft spruce that my various selection of nutplates, AN4 bolts and washers are shipped. Should be able to finish this part off before long.
Next I finished drilling the K1000-3 nutplate for the one unfinished side (Once the new AN4 nutplates are in I'll tackle the last one) I then decided to tap the threads on the W-731 tie-down bar. I used my 3/8-16 tapered tap, secured the tie-down bar in the vice and went to work. It was slow work but it went very well. The tapered tap just fit in the hole and the threads grabbed quickly. I used WD-40 to lube the tap as I went. I'd turn the tap about an 1/8th turn, then back, then turned it again cutting about 1/8 turn, and back, I do this a couple of times and then I'd blow out the chips with air and squirt in some WD-40. Every so often I would back out the tap, blow all the chip off the tap and out of the hole, and stick it back in. Takes a bunch of time, but I am very happy with the results. I tapped just about 1-1/4" deep. This allows a solid 1" of full threads while the tapered end made up the last 1/4".
