28-29 APR 14: Rudder TE prep: 4.5 hours

30 APR 14: Page 7-9 steps 2-8: 2.5 hours

Positioned the R-1001-L skin on the R-1001-R skin, rolled back the R-1001-L skin and riveted the forward hole in the stiffeners.  Riveted the shear clips.  Used fishing line to hang the skin from the garage door opener – worked great!

Clecoed the trailing edge together with the double sided, 3M tape:

Trailing edge ready for riveting:

01 MAY 14: Page 7-10 steps 1-5: 2.5 hours

Clecoed the R-1002 spar to the R-1010 shear clips then riveted them together.  Riveted the R-1004 bottom rib, R-1005 horn, and the R-1007 striker plates to the R-1002 spar:

Back side:

Riveted the R-1001 skins to the spar flanges.  Only had time for one flange tonight:

03 MAY 14: Page 7-10 steps 5-7 page 7-11 steps 1-2: 7 hours

Continued riveting the R-1001 skin to the second spar flange and ran into a hole that I missed dimpling!  No way to get much of anything in there with everything pretty much riveted together.  I had to get a little creative with the longeron yolk and just holding the bottom dimple die – worked like a champ:

Got the skins all riveted to the spar:

Skin side:

Began to rivet the trailing edge.  I’ve been thinking (and worrying) about this for quite a while.  I decided to use the method I read about using a steel bar to act like a backriveting plate – drilled holes in it to cleco the trailing edge down:

The first set backriveted, the second set waiting to rivet:

Can’t cleco with rivets in every hole, so clamp trailing edge to the plate:

Hard to get a good pic, but I got a nice, straight trailing edge:

04 MAY 14: Page 7-11 steps 2-4, page 7-12 steps 1-4: 4 hours

Rolled the leading edge of the rudder.  Prepped to prime the small section of the leading edge before riveting:

Primed:

Finished leading edge:

Formed the skin around the counterbalance weight:

 

Secured the counterbalance weight by installing hardware:

05 MAY 14: Page 7-12 step 5: 1 hour

Riveted the remaining twelve matching holes in the skins, top rib, and counterbalance rib.  Rudder complete!

07 MAY 14: Page 9-15 step 7: 30 mins

Riveted the two WD-415 trim cable attachment brackets to their corresponding E-616 cover plates – no pics

08 MAY 14: Page 9-14 steps 8-10: 2.25 hours

Prosealed the trailing edge ribs to the elevators.  Prosealed the trailing edge wedges to the elevators and clecoed the trailing edges.  Weighted the control surfaces and will let them cure for a few days:

09 MAY 14: Page 10-2 step 1: 1 hour

Made the F-1012E tie down bar and tapped to 3/8 x 16 x 1 ¼.  First time I ever tapped, but it turned out well.  I used plenty of cutting fluid and only turned about 1.5 turns before I removed and cleaned the tap: