Elevator skin prep and inspection hatch
Task completed
- Skin prep
- Inspection hatch
Parts prep
Skin
There is no dimple on the elevator, so the prep is pretty straightforward. As painful as always, I peeled off the plastic cover from both skins. This is probably the most time consuming part of this build log entry 😢
I wiped down the skin for dust, then deburred all holes and edges. I then used maroon scotch brite to scoff up the skin near all the holes to make future painting easier.
priming other parts
Then I moved onto priming a few smaller parts, namely: the tiny doublers that need to go between rib and skin, and the parts for inspection hatch.
I only primed one side of the round piece, which is the inpsection hatch cover under the elevator.
On the unprimed side, I followed the Sling instruction to put on a layer of vinyl. I probably don’t need the prime on either side actually, because I assume the primer will be replaced by something else before painting the airplane. But it doesn’t hurt to keep the prime on for now to get some protection.
Inspection hatch
Grip on plate
For some reason, the 3.2mm rivet holes on the inspection hatch are all pre-drilled to 2.8mm. So I needed to updrill them to 3.2. Not a big deal, done.
Then I riveted the inspection hatch grip on plate on the inside of the left skin.
I wanted to do this as early as possible before I install the skin because the skin is really flimsy and I was worried I might accidentally give it a bend or something. Adding the plate gives it a tiny bit more strength.
Inspection cover
The holes on the cover is also pre-drilled to 2.8 and I upsized them to 3.2mm per the instruction. Not sure why they didn’t just pre-drill to 3.2mm like other parts that came in the kit.
Then riveting and installing a M4 nut.
The KAI called for 6 rivets but there are 8 holes. The 2 holes left without rivet are used to provide a insert to some kind of tool to help rotate the plate more easily. I don’t like the idea of leaving holes unriveted. So I riveted all 8 holes. When I need to rotate, I can put 2 mandrels in the rivet hole, or use a suction cup.
