Yesterday, I set out to add some anti chaffe tape to the top of the VS,as when the rudder was fully deflected. there was some rubbing in this area. I removed the rudder, and found that there was only 1/4" to allow for tape !?!?! without running into the spar and rivet heads. I had discarded the idea of using hand seamers to 'open' the area because of fear of cracking the paint. But I covered the jaws of the seamers with duct tape, and then CAREFULLY worked the area in question, to my happy surprise I found that I was easily able to open up the area enough to eliminate the rubbing and to equal the same gap as the remainder of the VS/Rudder. While I had the tail light off. I took advantage of Jerry and Mickey's buffer, and bufferd the tail/strobe light aluminum housing. Looks Nice ! When the plane was painted they use a buffing compound to do the color sanding of the clear coat. The residue that it leaves is similar to talc powder. (There are some traces of it around the rivets heads.) I was concerned that this had found it's way into the static system, So. I crawled under the panel and disconnected the static line. I inspected each static port and opened up any visible powder using a pin. Then I applied some compressed air to the disconnected static line to blow any residue out of the system. Reconnected the line. Today I helped another RV-10 builder fit his doors. He's been fighting this for over a month. We got them 'rough' fitted today, he's got some epoxy/flox work to do to repair some missteps, and then Monday we'll continue.
Upper portion of VS/Rudder fixed to eliminate rubbing/chaffing
polished tail/strobe light holder
Cleaned out static system of any painting residue.
