Well, this is the first real “work” that I’m counting as hours toward the build process. The first step with any kit from Van’s is to inventory the contents of the shipment and make sure everything is in the box – and HOLY CRAP, they fit a lot of stuff in that small box. This one took me a while – and by a while I mean almost 6 hours. Admittedly part of the reason it took so long is I was admiring all of the cool stuff. I was also figuring out how to get my garage set up as I went along to make things easier. I probably only spent 2-3 hours actually doing inventory.
The first thing I did was count all the “big” parts. By big parts I mean things like skins, ribs, spars, etc. These items are either individually packed held together in little bundles wrapped in plastic. I learned my first lesson pretty quick – open the bundles slowly because they hide some smaller parts tucked inside the bigger ones. I may have dropped a part and been super worried that I had already damaged something before I even bucked my first rivet. In the end, not only was there no damage but I couldn’t even tell it had been dropped. All the parts are covered in a blue plastic coating that Van’s puts on in their factory so things are pretty well protected. I ended up leaning most of the stuff up against the garage wall next to my work bench. This isn’t really a good solution, so I’m going to have to buy some shelves or something to get better organized
Next I was on to inventorying the one billion little bags of small parts. I regret not taking a picture, because this was one plastic bag, with a bunch of smaller paper and plastic bags in it, with more small bags inside those, with all manner of screws and rivets and bolts and joints you can imagine. So – a quick run to Harbor Freight to pick up a small parts bin organizer later and I’m off to counting. Vans recommends you count all of the small parts except for rivets, which are sold by weight. There are A LOT of small parts. I can safely say, I have plenty of practice counting to 50 now 😂.
In the end, there were a few screws missing and one elevator rib – not bad for thousands of parts. A quick call to Van’s later and parts are on the way. Great customer service FTW! I didn’t take any pictures here because well – it’s inventory. Not a lot to show.