Instead of de-blueing the entire skin I do (as many others) only remove the blue vinyl from the rivet holes I need to rivet. The forward side (here the top) requires additional margin, because the leading edge skin overlaps. I use a soldering iron to (gently) melt small tracks into the vinyl and then remove the parts that need riveting.

Then the back riveting can start. Notice the steel plate beneath the Aileron skin and the “special” back-rivet set on the rivet gun. Riveting the aft most rivets, requires the skin to be bend a little. Not so much the bend is deformed.

Here you can see the steel plate better. Inserting all the AN4263-3.5 rivets in the dimpled skins.

Then applying the tape to keep them in place when turning the skins for riveting.
Although freezing cold outside, the sun was pouring through the window, overexposing my pictures.

After all the stiffeners are riveted to the skin we can start bending the skins to the final angle. I hesitated to be smarter than the plans of Van’s and rivet the spar and leading edge first to the top side of the skin. This would sincerely easy the rivet job. Fortunately I decided to stick to the plans, because if you see the amount of bending required, it would never have worked with a riveted spar.

Looks scary bending the skin to a pancake, but notice the spacing on the aft side. I don’t compress the original radius aft. However I do need to bend the skin all the way (until the stiffeners touch the other side).

The skins feathers back to the height of the spar. So now we can check if they are bend enough.

It looks great already (now another few hours of riveting). I clecoed the skin to the spar and added the leading edge skin. I riveted the first few rivets, but decided to stop.

It takes too much time and I’m afraid I don’t produce enough quality. I decided to cleco the right Aileron also and defer the riveting to a day my dad is visiting. With an extra pair of hands it is much easier and the quality will be on par.

Time: 5 Hours, Rivets: 244/1

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First step is cleaning up all the parts and degreasing them.

Start the clock, we are mixing the tank sealant components and we now have about two hours to finish the work (turns out after three hours it still looks ok to use. I’ve bought a dozen empty kit containers which you can use to fill yourself. By following the channel of Jason Ellis, I found he liked the kit dispenser ProSeal. Since I already bought the inexpensive quart tank sealant, I wanted to experiment with empty kit containers.
This worked out fantastically, it’s really a great way to seal the tanks.

There is a trick however in putting the plunger in the container. You can’t get the air on top of the sealant out. Our first attempt was to squeeze the dispenser hard enough that the air would escape at the side of the plunger. That didn’t work. Finally I used a thin piece of scrap aluminum which I stick into the container together with the plunger and it created enough space for the air to escape.

Here’s my action list of sealing and riveting the tanks:
1) put a drops of tank sealant in skin dimple

2) lay a line of sealant on both sides of the rivets

3) put a drops of tank sealant in the stiffener dimple
4) back rivet

With the excess of tank sealant we also sealed and riveted the water/fuel drain, that is at the lowest point of the tank and allows for draining the tank with condensed water.

There was even enough sealant left for the fuel caps.

I feel confident next time to insert the ribs and seal the tanks. Working with the sealant is less hassle than anticipated, although you get sticky fingers. The empty kit container and dispenser is really helpful.

Time: 5 Hours, Rivets: 208/0

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Easy things first, riveting the stiffeners to the right Elevator. Just as with the Rudder, I use a little structural epoxy at the ends of the stiffeners, to reduce vibrations. This time with back riveting I accidentally riveted next to the back rivet plate in the MDF (three times). Fortunately this only ruins the MDF plate and probably the rivet, but I threw it away just to be sure.

In order to rivet the end of the stiffener at the trailing edge of the Elevator, you have to both press the stiffener and bend (open) the pre-bend skin. This feels scary, but it is ok. I applied some duct tape to the top of my rivet gun to prevent scratching the inside prime job.

After back riveting all stiffeners of both the right and left Elevator, I also back riveted the Trim tab reinforcement plate to left Elevator. I’m not sure how it happened, but I managed to screw up two rivets, so I had to drill them out and reset them. I’m getting better and better in drilling out rivets (not sure if that is good or bad).

I also screwed up the first rivet of the first stiffener, because I had issues with bending the skin. So in total three rivet reset.

We had a lot of snow today and I had to shovel my way out of the workshop. However with the extra heater in the workshop, the temperature was very nice, even though I don’t heat it that much.

Time: 5 Hours, Rivets: 254/3

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Well if either side is scrap it’s much easier to use red and green.
After crude trimming with the snips, I need to polish the stiffeners with the Scotch-Brite wheel.

We attached the stiffeners of both the left and right skin and checked if the distance between the stiffeners and he front spar of the rudder and the trailing edge are sufficient.

Today’s result on the rudder is just the stiffeners and a global look over the rudder plan and drawing.

Time: 3 Hours, Rivets: 0/0

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