I was inspecting the Elevators this evening and on close review I was just not happy with the way I bent the left Elevator where it meets up with the trim tab. The skin had bow in it. When you squeeze it to simulate differences in air pressure I could feel that beer can affect. It seemed an obvious place for fatigue and future cracks.
I measured and cut out the section that was exhibitng the stress. I then fabricated a small rib to replace the material that I removed. I then filtted the rib in place and riveted.
It turned out GREAT... and it releaved any stress that the bending process may have created and corrected the clearance between the Trim Tab and the Elevator.
I think this technique is much better than bending... Cleaner lines, more accurate and much less room for error. I highly recommend it as an A&P.
Many builders have used this process, and I want to thank them for postings details on how they accomplished this same task... THANKS!!
