Today, I sealed the trailing edge. Van’s has you do this to keep the trailing edge straight while riveting it. I think a bigger deal is made about this than should be. Put sealant on both sides of the AEX wedge and pop it in place and cleco it to a piece of aluminum angle.…

No pics today because I made no real progress. I was going to pro-seal the trailing edge today. I ordered the small (1 oz) 30 minute kit from Van’s. It sucked. It was like trying to mix two flavors of bubble gum together. Also, there seemed to be just enough for the job. I threw…

Finally, got the trailing edge right today. I guess 3 times a charm. Here is the counter sinking jig I made for the drill press. I put my “trash” AEX wedge to use making it. Nice and flush!!

I found a good substitute for a close quarters bucking bar. I took a mason’s chisel smoothed the face of it. Worked like a charm. Still couldn’t get to the last rivets on both ribs. Had to use pop rivets for those. The chisel did kinda beat the hell out of my priming job. I…

Torque wrench finally arrived today so I was able to torque the bolts which hold the counterweight to the rib and close it up. I put a little red Loc-tite on the bolts. Don’t want them coming lose and since they are in a place which can’t be inspected I figured, “better safe than sorry.”…

Today, I still can’t put the top rib on but decided to get as much of the skin riveted on as I could. Because the trailing edge must be “glued” in place with fuel tank sealant, I decided to go ahead and prep the surface now by roughing up the inside trailing edge of the…

Riveted the rudder skeleton together today. I had ordered a flange nose yoke for the squeezer. Wished I had had one all along. This allowed me to get to the rivets inside the horn brace. I was able to use the squeezer for the most fo the rivets except the ones connecting the counter balance…

Nothing fancy today. Just primed all the skeleton parts except the trailing edge AEX wedge.

Today was pretty much a waste. I made an attempt to countersink the AEX wedge. After seeing how others had been doing this, the only way to get the countersinks nice and even is to create a jig. Basically the hole get’s enlarged slightly and the countersink pilot does not have anything to hold onto…

Deburred and dimled all the skeleton parts and countersunk the counterweight to fit the counterweight rib. Countersinking the rib was a no-brainer:  I had to order a #10 dimple die set from Cleaveland. Their kit does not include one. Screws fit like a charm in the counterweight rib. All dimpling and countersinking done with the…