I'm building Platt's Zero. The plans call for "Y- lock or Competition L/G system" and since these plans were drawn in the early 80's I'm thinking the plans may not reflect a set up for today's offerings (I'm thinking Century). So the short question is, should I wait until I'm in possession of the retracts I'm going to use before cutting the wing ribs? Do retracts come with templates for cutting the adjacent ribs? The plans have the strut areas in the aforementioned ribs penned in but I'm not sure the dimensions of the struts I buy will match the ones that Platt had in mind. TIA.

The brackets on the LG will change from manufacture to manufacture and model to model and sometimes the legs will be different so wait until you get your LG in hand. My Dubro and Spring Airs came with templates.

Thanks, I suspected as much but it's always good to know for a certainty.

Last set of Robarts I used were an air/air and the mounting bracket was so small there was no room to get a bite with the screws!! That was the last set of Robarts I used. They were a 90 degree rotate type too if that made a difference? I can't recall the number.

Dave is still around and is known to be helpful. http://www.daveplattmodels.com/

It might be worth asking him which current retract unit to go with.

Whatever route you go wait till you have the retracts before cutting wood.