Lot of work today. Started on the Vertical stabilizer. Worked on the upper and lower hinge assemblies that will eventually attach to the rudder. Worked ahead as much as possible without rivetiing anything as I wanted to prime (paint) the interior parts of the vertical stabilizer. Van's instructions are not geared toward the prep, paint, and assemble method I had in mind and in a few short steps it was necessary to start riveting. With daylight fading, I scuffed up the parts I had prepped and deburred, with a grey scotchbrite pad and set about priming the parts out on the patio. I'm using a rattle can primer from NAPA P/N MS-7220. While tha parts were drying I cleaned up my mess from the day. With great trepidation I squeezed my first rivet into the upper hing assembly. What a strain. I had purposely acquired the Cleveland Tools "Main Squeeze" rivet squeezer to be easier on my hands. Setting AN4 rivets is not any easy task but I got both hinge assemblies completed. Fresh from that success I pulled my first LP4-3 rivets with my Harbor Freight rivet gun attaching the spar caps for the Vertical stabilizer. I ended the evening by squeezing some countersunk rivets attaching nutplates to the VS spar.
