Elevator rivet filling

TLDR

• Filled and sanded rivets on elevator
• Tried and failed to install trim motor

Details

Rivet filling

Today is a fun day. Amy joined me to fill the rivets on the elevator.

After reading other people’s experiences, I decided to use sherwin-williams shrink free spackling as the filler.

Tools needed:

• Sherwin-williams shrink free spackling
• 10 ml syringe from Amazon
• Drill with sanding paper attachment
• 3M maroon scratch pad

We filled the syringes with spackle. The entire elevator used about 10-15 ml total.

Then we pushed the syringe to each rivet hole and gave it a light squeeze to fill the holes.

Then we waited for the filler to dry. This took about 4-5 hours. I highly suspect it could dry much sooner.

After the holes were dry, I attached the scratch pad to drill, and gave each hole a light touch. A gentle rub was sufficient to clear the overflown fillers.

Amy and I did this on the back side, then she lost interest so I did the other side by myself.

Trim motor

I decided to give trim motor a try even though the instruction recommended to wait until the airplane is painted.

To install the trim motor to the elevator, I needed to first connect a push rod to the motor using a clevis pin and a cotter pin. And of course I broke the cotter pin when trying to bend it. I over bent the cotter pin and it immdiately showed a crack at the bend. So I removed it using a flash cutter and ordered some replacement on Aircraft Spruce. I will try again when I receive the replacement I guess.