Rudder pieces layed out. The skins are extremely thin and require careful handling. The stiffeners require trimming and a small mistake can cost you $20 and a week delay.
Parts have been drilled, dimpled, deburred, and primed. Assembly begins here with attaching the stiffeners to one skin.
Attaching the stiffeners of both skins together. There is a layer of sealant along the trailing edge, which wasn't included in the kit. Assembly was challenging due to the small spaces.
The sealant curing here for two days. There weren't enough clecos in the tool kit from Cleaveland tools - at least 50 1/8" and 75 3/32" are needed.
Examining my fine work. The front section here is completed last.
Finishing the last rivets here.
Here are the vertical stabilizer and the rudder together.
I'm through the initial excitement phase at this point. This thing is a lot of work and I'm settling in for the long haul. It's nice to see some real results though after just a couple of months of work.
The rudder and stab in shrink-wrap look exactly like what we see at aircraft factories, waiting to be joined to the fuselage. Very exciting!
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