Brief Description: Continued Work on Elevator Stiffeners
Sanded elevator stiffeners which I trimmed yesterday. Next step is to match drill the stiffeners to the skins.
As I pulled out the skins, I noticed that the skins had a dent on the interior and the edges had been bent. I tried to massage the dents and bents; however, the end result was worse than the original. Note to self: interior dents are near impossible to massage out and, according to VAF, can create stress fractures and oil canning. At the end of the day, best procedure is to leave it be ad fill it with bondo prior to painting. As I bought the kit secondhand, I have no alternative to purchasing new skins.
Lessons Learned -Do not attempt to fix cosmetic defects in aluminum. They are not fixable. These defects will be fixed with bondo at the paint stage. View the assembly of the airframe as rough construction (carpentry) not finish construction (carpentry).
