Jan 14-16 -- Right Elevator

Started to button up this elevator. As you can see, some of the rivets are way up in there, and I was really worried about how to set the rivets. In fact I drilled for pop rivets in a few places that -- as it turned out -- were not required.

First order of business was to attach the counterweight rib to the spar, which was tougher than it should have been. In fact there are other ideas about the order of assembly -- see http://www.vansairforce.com/community/showthread.php?t=9756 for one discussion. In one of the pics below you can see that I was able to squeeze a bucking bar into an open space. Then I realized that if I simply opened the top skin, it was easy to use a pneumatic squeezer and gun. Doh!

Did use chisels as bucking bars in a few corners, though.

Once that was completed, I used a combination of solid and pull rivets to attach the bottom skin. A friend gave me a hunk of angle iron to work on the trailing edge (need the angle iron as a jig). Had to order a new wedge for the trailing edge -- I REALLY screwed that puppy up.

And oh -- I'm in deep now! Just ordered the wings...

Total Time: 7 hours