My friend Joe came over today and we finished the work on the left elevator. Before he arrived, I marked both piano hinges as called for in the plans and drilled a #40 hole. After Joe got here, we drilled the #30 holes on the leading edge and then blind-riveted the 29 holes together. I drilled out three rivets between the two elevators that I didn't like, but other than that, that step went well. The next step called for clecoing the hinge to the elevator using the hole previously mentioned. Next we had to line up the hinge straight across the elevator and trim tab. This is where Joe's calibrated machinist's eye came in handy. We then match drilled the end hole followed by one in the middle to the hinge. I then elected to use the upholstery method of then dividing everthing in half until there were only two holes between each cleco. The trim tab drilling was accomplished in similar fashion. Joe then had to leave so I primed the hinges and cleaned a litlle while they dried. I used the hand squeezer to rivet the hinges to both the elevator and trim tab. Both were accomplished fairly easily, I just had to ensure that the skin was pressed down to the spars before squeezing the rivets. The pin that holds the hinge together actually proved to be the most time consuming because I wanted it to look good. I think that I will replace the one I have already done because it doesn't meet my expectations. The weather is supposed to be cold and rainy all weekend so I don't know how much I will accomplish, despite the fact I have a long DND weekend. Get it Jeri?
