Trailing edges complete
This week I completed riveting the dreaded trailing edges of all of the control surfaces (right and left elevator and rudder). I probably worried about them too much, or maybe just right, as I think they came out great. They are all very straight.
After the proseal had cured, I unscrewed the angle aluminum from the edge of the bench and removed all of the clecos holding the trailing edge to the angle. Then I cleaned up some of the little bits of proseal in the rivet holes. I had some extra flat rivet sets for my squeezer that I was willing to sacrifice. I ground the face of one of these sets to the proper angle (84 degrees) and carefully squeezed the rivets about half of the way. I alternated the side that the shop head was on for each rivet (one up, the next down). After I had all of the rivets squeezed about half of the way, I went back and squeezed them all about another quarter of the way. Then I got out the back rivet plate and put the mushroom set in the rivet gun and drove (back riveted) all of the rivets the rest of the way. The shop head side looks very good and a very straight trailing edge was easily produced.
Yeah! After all the work, preparation, and hand wringing, the trailing edges are done without incident. Next, we’ll roll the rudder leading edge and fit elevator counterweights.
