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March 18, 2004
Real life has caught up to me the last couple of weeks. Work has had me traveling enough that I haven't had time to make it to the basement until tonite. Things should be slower for the next couple of weeks, so it's time to start knocking some rivets!
Unfortunately, during the interim, my camera had run off for parts unknown. I did eventually find it, but only after I had worked on the plane. Oh well, no pictures for today.
I still wasn't happy with that last rivet near the trailing edge of the R-1004 bottom rib. I decided to try a few different things and see if I could get it done to where I was absolutely satisfied. It took 4 or 5 tries, but I finally got it to where I was happy. Good thing I'm getting to be an expert at drilling the the 'oopsies' out! (I did order a thin-nose/no-hole yoke from Avery today for the next time I run into this. They also had the special bucking bar that Van's specifies for the horizontal stabilizer, so I ordered that as well.)
From there, I moved on to pop-riveting the shear clips to the stiffeners on the right skin. Most pop-riveting I've ever done! And to think that before I'd started this project, I didn't even know how to use those.
The next step gets us into using the tank sealant, and you have to finish the next several steps before the sealant sets, so I decided to stop here on the rudder.
I'm combining Van's instructions, with tips from other builders, and have a large piece of angle iron that I'm going to cleco the rudder to, to make sure it stays straight! It also function as one helluva back plate. Of course, that means I need to get it smooth first...
Started off with some 80 grit sandpaper on a random-orbital, which removed some rust, but I can see that this isn't going to do it (plus it was the only 80 grit piece I had in the shop). Sooo, tomorrow I'm off to Home Depot to look at a grinder, more sandpaper, etc. to get this sucker cleaned up and looking good.
I'm thinking friday to get the bar prepped, and then saturday I'll finish putting the rudder together, or at least the steps to where it's time to let the sealant sit.
