Tonight I spent 3 hours going through the next few steps, ultimately getting all of the match and finish drilling done on the vertical stabilizer. I started by final-drilling the spar to rib holes, #30 size. There was a call out in the plans to match drill the middle holes in two of the ribs, but I found there to already be holes in the ribs, so it was really a case of finish drilling them.
With that done it was time to fit the skin! It was neat to get the skin on and to see a real airplane part taking shape. I was pleasantly surprised at how well everything fit together. Everything lined up nicely, and I was happy with the fit.
At this point I was contemplating calling it a night and going to bed, but I decided I wanted to get the drilling done and the piece disassembled if possible. The drilling went fairly quick, and within an hour I was done and starting to disassemble the parts.
I found one hole I had neglected to drill, so I drilled it and then finished disassembly. Next step is to deburr all parts.
Reading ahead, the plans suggest priming after deburring, but before counter sinking and dumpling. I’m going to ask my EAA chapter members tomorrow how others went about this. It seems like priming should happen after counter sinking, but perhaps there is a good reason.