Elevator Progress

Elevators

With the HS being complete I focused back to the elevators, running back through several steps to make sure I wasn't missing anything in repairing my previous mistake.   It didn't take long to re-rivet the piece back in.  I thought I would do more damage than good matching drilling the parts, so instead I used a reamer bit to get the holes to size prior to riveting.  Everything went fine, and I had no issues getting rivets to fit.

New part fits perfectly.

Riveting the skins up I used my method of taping first and working down the line with the rivet gun, looking in and checking as I did each one.  When I bought my tools I also purchased a special RV-10 empennage bucking bar as well. The choices are to buy it, make it yourself or use cherry rivets instead.  I will probably use this similar technique in the future, clamping down the part and using the workbench as leverage to rivet was painless.

As a reminder I cleco all the holes that I'm not to rivet yet.

Once I had the gusset riveted in I could close the inner skins up.  This went fairly quick with the squeezer.  When I got to the part where I was putting the outboard tips on riveting got a bit more challenging. Several times I dropped the bar and ended up with some warped skin sections.  I've learned that pre-paint these are 100% fixable assuming you're not punching holes in the skin so I'm not going to stress out about it.

Spent a good 30 mins or so working the band-saw and grinder to get the foam blocks into their proper shape.  Using spray adhesive to attach the template worked flawlessly and the paper was easy to peel off when done.  This was also the first time to use the Tank Sealant product.  This is used to attach the ribs into the scuffed sections inside the trailing edge.  This stuff seems a lot like JB weld, and being familiar with that used it as such.  Mixed it up applied to the ribs and slide them in place.  The plan also calls for using this sealant for the trailing edge piece, however per Vans I can still use the tape I used previously, decided to go with that.  Overall was all a bit messy, very important before cleoco'ing down and putting weights on that you verify ribs didn't move around.  Now I'll work on the trim tab this week while I give three days or so for sealant to cure.

Dry fit placement