Over the last week, I’ve managed to get the skins on the rudder, match drilled, everything taken apart and deburred. Today I was able to take all of the parts to the bath tub to prep them for priming. About 2.5 hours later, I was priming all the parts. I wasn’t that happy with the priming on the VS, it didn’t adhere real well in some spots. I made a point to scuff up the surfaces better this time, as I don’t think I did enough of that last time, and didn’t give a good surface for the primer to stick to. I also bought a case of better Scotchbrite pads from Amazon for the job, plus I only have a couple of maroon pads that came with my tool kit, so I’ll need more anyways. After the prep today all of my parts were dull looking, skuffed up pretty well, no shiny surfaces remained. We’ll see how this session of priming went and decide whether I need to buy some etching solution as an additional step prior to rinsing and priming the parts.
A couple of pics of the rudder as I was preparing to match drill all the holes common to the skin and the skeleton.
Like before, while waiting for the rudder parts to dry enough to flip and spray the other side, and dry again, I decided to start on section 8; The Horizontal Stabilizer.
I got the rear spar, stiffener, and Hinge Brackets deburred, match drilled, taken apart and holes deburred. I was rather surprised that at such an early stage (page 1, in fact) that the instructions tell you to prime the parts you just worked on, as we’re going to start riveting them already.. Okay… So I prepped the parts in the tub again, a bit of a challenge with the spar being so long (see the picture below), and let them dry as I took a break for dinner. I actually needed to butt the two work tables up against each other for the first time, as this is a pretty long part. The tables are 5 feet long each, so this part is a little over 10′ long.
A quick “selfie” in my garb after finishing the primer coat on the Horizontal Stabilizer Rear Spar.
Tomorrow I should be able to start riveting the Rudder together once the parts cure overnight.
adamsrv10 