My dad helped me with gluing the wedge and the two skins together that make up the trailing edge of the Rudder. We hesitated, because I’m keeping close contact with another RV-7 builder in the Netherlands (Joop Sint Jago) who tipped me on using Proseal on the stiffeners to prevent cracking. Since we didn’t have Proseal, I played with the thought of using a “regular” sealant kit, but rejected this. Since we had to glue the trailing edge anyway, we used the structural epoxy to seal the end of the stiffeners.
Now we can “close up” the Rudder and rivet the skins to the spar. We used the structural epoxy to bond the trailing edge and clecoed it together.
We used a cleco in every hole and used the aluminum rod to keep the edge straight. Also I created a custom bucking bar from a small hammer head, to get in to small places, such as the Rudder horn. This worked great and I drilled out two rivets that didn’t set to my satisfaction. Resetting them with the custom “cramped” bucking bar went great.
Time: 4 Hours, Rivets: 98/2
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