Last night I riveted the counterweight skins onto each of the elevators. Tonight I primed the inside of the elevator horns, and started work on the replacement trim tab parts.
Each of the elevators have counterweight skins which wrap around the flanges of the tip ribs, and provide strength to support the elevator counterweights. Each skin had 50 rivets to set, for a total of 100. After verifying there was no twist in the ribs or skins, it was an easy task to squeeze the rivets, alternating from top to bottom to try to prevent twists for forming. To check for twist, I set the elevator on it’s end and ensured the sides of the skin were all in contact with the bench.
Here’s a picture of the completed step, with the two elevators.
Tonight I used some rattle-can self-etching primer to prime the insides of the elevator horns. I sprayed the primer into a plastic mixing cup, then poured it into the tube openings, while rolling the horns around to cover all internal surfaces.
Then I trimmed the new elevator bottom skin, deburred it, and dimpled the close-out tabs. I trimmed the new trim tab horns, then deburred and dimpled them. Finally, I deburred the new trim tab spar.
My goal is to finish the trim tab this weekend, we’ll see how it goes.