Hey, bigbird
I did cut into both ribs. As you can see in picture #2 fro my first post, I had the bigger wheel well outlined. But I am using "only" 3.5" wheels. As a matter of fact I am using the H9 wheel from my big P-47 (80" wing). I stiffened the sheeting around the bigger well with balsa and epoxied the new fiberglass wells in place using micro balloon. That way it helped to strengthen the area around the retracts. I feel pretty comfortable regarding structurel strength of the wings.