I was able to complete steps 1, 2 and 4 today. The E-921 gusset was riveted to the E-905 root rib and the LH and RH E-903 and E-904 ribs were riveted together. I accidently drove some AN470 rivets in the two holes that called for AN426 rivets, but drilling them out was easy with no damage to the holes. I have a tool specially designed to center the drill bit over the button head and drill straight down the center every time. It makes the job easy.
I also riveted the E-910 hinge reinforcement plates to the the front spars (E-00902-1L/R). However, I riveted the two holes that are meant to hold the K1000-6 nutplates and had to drill those out. I installed the nutplates as per the plans.
Page 09-12, Step 1 calls out checking the front and rear spar flange angles (84 and 96 degrees, respectively). I purposely deferred this step until just before riveting, so I measured the angles at various locations along the length and all locations were out of spec anywhere from 1 to 5 degrees. I'll need to spend some time with the hand seamer to bring all of the angles back to blueprint. I think it's the dimpling that causes it to deviate.
LHS elevator parts ready to rivet
Riveting the E-903 & E-904 ribs together
No riveting session is complete without drilling out a few mistakes.
