The foreward skins had some prep before they were ready to be fitted and drilled. On the bottom inside of each one I had to make a rectangular cut-out where the hinge brackets are. I drilled a 1/4" hole first then cut the rest out. The fwd skins are also trimmed so that the inside fwd edges taper out toward each other at the base (at the spar). Then of course the ribs had to be measured and marked. Although technically done after the skins were fitted and pulled tight, I included a pic of the drilled rivet holes here since I had to take them back off and de-burr then paint. In some of the pics you may see that I switched primer colors from green on the rudder, to yellow on the stabilator, then back to green on the stabilator fwd skins. The rudder green I dind't like how it adhered to the metal. The yello stuff laid well but was quite expensive. I found a green primer at Advance Auto that I tested on a scrap piece and was very happy with. Not just for its adhesion, but the price was way less. I'll probably make a seperate entry about this in another section.
