This was a tricky one. When I started building my plane, I was building the HD model of the Zodiac. Fairly early in the process, I decided to switch over to the XL. I'd read that all of the earlier Zodiac models shared the same empennage, so I wasn't too concerned. One problem. The fuselage on the XL model was widened slightly at the rear end, effectively making my horizontal stabilizer mounts too narrow for the fuselage. Here's what I (and others) did to remedy the problem. The front mount uses an .063 shim, then a .125 plate bolted to the interior of the top longeron. The bottom of the plate is rounded so it doesn't interfere with the radius of the longeron. I replaced the three A5 rivets with three AN3-5A bolts. The result in my opinion is a more sturdy mounting surface than originally designed, plus it closes the gap so the stabilizer fits perfectly. The rear mounts use a .063 shim that I riveted in place. That made the rear mounts fit perfectly as well. I'd heard of this fix from Zenith and other builders, but had no idea it would work as well as it did.
