Elevator work continued

March 20, 2010 – It’s been a little slow lately. Nice weather and everything, but I haven’t been able to order the wings yet, so I’ve been pacing myself.

Over the last week or so, I’ve cleaned, alodined and primed the remainder of the elevator parts.

I was concerned last time about the condition of the doubler for the elevator trim. Edge distance on the dimples for the screw holes was a little close for my comfort. After looking at it and looking at a couple of other airplanes, I think it’s going to be OK. A friend pointed out that the nutplates can act as doublers for the material also, adding a little bit of extra strength. The only thing on this plate that I did differently was to countersink the holes for the nutplate rivets. One reason is for maintainability later. If a nutplate goes bad, I’d rather not have to dimple a new one before installation. Well, it’s installed in the left elevator skin now.

I’ve installed the stiffeners in the left elevator. Lots of fun getting the ones at the fwd end of the stiffeners, right up in the fold of the leading edge. Note the prodigious use of the green-striped rivet tape in the third picture. That tape hold the rivets in place so you can rivet from the back.

Time : 4:10