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Skins and Stiffeners Ready for Primer…Almost

October 13th, 2011

Ready to Prime

After work, I had some free time, so off to the shop. The first thing I tackled was dimpling the trim servo doubler (E-615PP) screw locations with my #6 dimple dies in the DRDT-2. These holes are REALLY close to the edge of the part, but they came out nice and crisp. I then swapped the dies for my 3/32″ and then dimpled all the rivet holes except the rivet locations for the nutplates that will be attached to the doubler that hold the screws for the access cover to the trim servo. I have decided to use NAS1097’s here instead of trying to dimple the doubler and the nutplates. These are commonly referred to as “oops” rivets. Why you ask? I will post more about them later when they arrive.

The next item to hit was removing the vinyl off the outside and inside of the skins at the stiffener locations. I have decided to do what I did on the inside of the rudder with the inside of the elevators. I removed the blue vinyl where the stiffeners go, and then I will scuff those locations and prime. Then when I am ready to close up the skins I will peel the rest of the vinyl off and lightly coat the rest of the interior of skin with some primer without scuffing. This appeared to work well on the rudder skins, and gave it a hair more corrosion resistance.

Once all the vinyl was removed, I dimpled the skins in the DRDT-2 and the stiffeners with my pneumatic squeezer. I then cleaned up and re-labeled all the stiffeners. All that is left is scuffing the inside areas of the skins and to prime them and the stiffeners. Then I will be ready to back rivet these little buggers on. With the weather warming up for a few days, I just might get it done this weekend.

Categories: Elevators
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