2 hours, 34 rivets
The proseal arrived from Van's so I got the trim tab and left elevator all ready to go. Read the instructions again, but learned that I didn't pay enough attention.
Mixed up the proseal. I bought two of the 1 oz kits from Van's. This was more than enough to do the trim tab and left elevator. The other one will do the right elevator. Applied the goop to the trim tab ribs, and put them onto the scuffed areas. Clecoed the trim tab trailing edge, and installed rib clamps.
Then with the proseal rapidly starting to set up (and it was hot in my garage!),
applied proseal to the left elevator trailing edge wedge and a big dab at the end of each stiffener.
Clecoed trailing edge to the angle, cleaned it up and left it to cure.
Begin riveting upper skin and hinge on trim tab. Got about halfway done when I realized that I had not match drilled and dimple the folded ends of the trim tab.
Learn from my mistake. I missed this step in the correct sequence (it should be done after bending the ends). Fixing it was unpleasant, took a lot of time, and risked major damage to the trim tab.
After match drilling the trim tab ends, I had to drill out 3 perfectly good rivets on the top skin so I could bend the upper skin out enough to allow access. Used needle-nose pliers to sneak a pop-rivet dimple die in and dimple all four holes.
Then reinstalled the three rivets in the upper skin, and CS4-4 pop rivets in the outboard end. Took about an hour to recover from that.
Even though I hadn't riveted all the way to the inboard end, there was still the freshly installed rib to deal with. I tried briefly to get the pop rivet dimpler in place, but there are 3 matched holes on that end (requiring 6 dimples), and I didn't want to upset the proseal. So I copped out and used standard pop rivets at the inboard end.
Then finished riveting upper skin, spar, and hinge.
The proseal arrived from Van's so I got the trim tab and left elevator all ready to go. Read the instructions again, but learned that I didn't pay enough attention.
Mixed up the proseal. I bought two of the 1 oz kits from Van's. This was more than enough to do the trim tab and left elevator. The other one will do the right elevator. Applied the goop to the trim tab ribs, and put them onto the scuffed areas. Clecoed the trim tab trailing edge, and installed rib clamps.
Then with the proseal rapidly starting to set up (and it was hot in my garage!),
applied proseal to the left elevator trailing edge wedge and a big dab at the end of each stiffener.
Clecoed trailing edge to the angle, cleaned it up and left it to cure.
Begin riveting upper skin and hinge on trim tab. Got about halfway done when I realized that I had not match drilled and dimple the folded ends of the trim tab.
Learn from my mistake. I missed this step in the correct sequence (it should be done after bending the ends). Fixing it was unpleasant, took a lot of time, and risked major damage to the trim tab.
After match drilling the trim tab ends, I had to drill out 3 perfectly good rivets on the top skin so I could bend the upper skin out enough to allow access. Used needle-nose pliers to sneak a pop-rivet dimple die in and dimple all four holes.
Then reinstalled the three rivets in the upper skin, and CS4-4 pop rivets in the outboard end. Took about an hour to recover from that.
Even though I hadn't riveted all the way to the inboard end, there was still the freshly installed rib to deal with. I tried briefly to get the pop rivet dimpler in place, but there are 3 matched holes on that end (requiring 6 dimples), and I didn't want to upset the proseal. So I copped out and used standard pop rivets at the inboard end.
Then finished riveting upper skin, spar, and hinge.
