As per advice a small amount of dihedral (0.2 degrees) was introduced to both wings. This is to allow some shrinkage in the struts when the top is welded. Then the wing struts were attached to the fuselage and marked to length with the top level with the centres of the bolt holes in the strut attach brackets. The wing struts were then cut to length and the front and rear edges notched to fit between the brackets. Next sections of douglas fir were cut and planed to fit into the struts. These protect against any possibility of compression failure under negative G loads. Two sections of 1/2" x 0.065" tubing were cut to length the fit between the strut attach brackets and reamed out to take a 3/8" bolt to act as bushings at the top of the strut and then bolted into place. The end of the strut was then flattened to fit neatly against the tubing and the dihedral rechecked. With everything set up as required the struts were then tack welded to the bushing. The temporary wing supports were removed leaving the wings mounted via the three bolts which will hold them in flight. Finally it was all dismantled again. Next job is to final weld the top of the struts.
