Its almost time to rivet the left elevator together, but first I have to take care of a few last tid bits. I disassembled the right elevator and deburred all of the parts, including the skin. The next step was to dimple the skin using the DRDT-2 and then dimple the skeleton parts using my squeezer, since some of these ribs have limited access. On the trailing edge of the ribs, I had to break out the pop rivet dimple dies to get in those tight spaces, which takes a little time and patience. The parts came out looking great and a test fit of a AN426 rivet seemed to agree:
Then I beveled the edges of the E-713 counter balance skin so that it would have an easy transition from the E-701 skin laying over the top of it. I started out getting it roughed out with a file, and then finished it off on the scotchbrite wheel to get a nice smooth bevel. I also rolled the edges of the skin so that it will lay nice and flush against the E-713 when it comes time to rivet. These little time sinks are things that take patience but are what creates a superb quality product in the end, so its time well spent.
Even though it doesn’t seem like a lot got done tonight, I had a solid 2.5 hours of work getting these parts prepped for final riveting. Since I had to replace the E-713 counterbalance skin, I will need to do another small priming session to prime the inside of the skin, and I am going to also prime a few of the doublers for the nut plates as well. I will probably setup for the priming session tomorrow and maybe start riveting the skeleton together. Here are the photos from tonights session:
Google Photos Link: https://goo.gl/photos/D6SH5X6hfyLBFwYi8
Hours Worked: 2.5