Started skinning the vert stab. Description here; photos on this and the next several pages (same date).
1. Drew guidelines on all the framing members to show through the pilot holes to make sure of alignment. 2. Laid the skin on a soft towel (it's polished, remember). 3. Clecoed the trailing edges of the skin together as suggested by others. 4. Used a towel-wrapped 2x4 to "squash" the skin just back from the leading edge. Used 2x4's on either end to keep the toweled 2x4 from squishing too far. 5. That got most of the bend there. Then I put 1x4's on either end of the toweled 2x4 to allow for squishing the skin a little more. 6. Laid out the vert stab frame inside the bent skin, and lined up the trailing edge of the skin on the non-hinge (rudder hinge) face. 7. Tweaked the frame inside the skin until I could see the guidelines on the framing members. 8. Updrilled the holes along the trailing edge and filled them with clecos. 9. Flipped the whole thing over and lined up the trailing edge on the rudder-hinge face. 10. Made sure the holes on this side would fall in the appropriate locations on the framing members. 11. Drilled 3/32" pilot holes in several locations of the skin on this side of the vert stab, but avoided all but 2 holes on the trailing edge, since I want to wait until I get my hinges before I do that drilling. 12. Flipped the assembly over again, and updrilled all the holes on the non-hinge side of the vert stab. 13. Deburred all the holes in the skin and the framing members. 14. Re-clecoed the skin. 15. Installed all rivets in this face of the vert stab.
I took my time, but it still went faster than I thought it would.
