started back riveting the rudder; but it was going so well until... i kept going past the metal plate and bent/dented/tore slightly the thin 0.16 skin. Ugh. now i have to decide to rebuild with new skin and start over; or repair. I went on vans airforce and reviewed many cracks around rivet area repairs in existing planes and decided i could reinforce and patch/epoxy this small dent in mid rudder on single rivet area. No need to replace the whole rudder assembly. wil post picture. did stop drill the area;which seems to be the best single fix; but decided to use T-88 structural epoxy and small patches of 0.016 2024 aluminum to take up some of the vibration load of the rudder. should be fine. read you need to use 80 grit sandpaper on aluminum to get the epoxy to "bite" enough for structural strength/adhesion on metal.
