Matt's RV-8 Project



Matt Dralle's RV-8 Project
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Date:  2-19-2012
Number of Hours:  1.00
Manual Reference:  
Brief Description:  All New Elevators - Part 01

Okay, so I wasn't all that happy with my original elevators on 'ol Ruby Vixen either. I kind of slightly over-bent the trailing edge and so when I slipped the spar into the front, the skin was sort of bowed in at the aft end on the top and bottom. Of course, its probably one of those things that nobody but me would ever notice, but I noticed it every time I looked at the tail. To make the decision easier, when I was bringing the RV-8 home from the Hangar after the Mishap, I bumped the trailing edge of the right elevator into the garage door post and put a pea-sized dent right in plain view! So, what a great opportunity to do things right the second time. I ordered up a new set of parts for a replacement right AND left elevator and got started. The long story-short is that it took me literally three tries on each one to finally get a set that I felt were "perfect". On the final try I used a semi-new back riveting technique on the stiffener rivets that yielded a nearly perfectly smooth surface along the row of rivets! That alone was worth the redo(s). After all of the fabrication, I had to prime all of the inside parts. Then all of the stiffeners got riveted on. I slipped with the rivet gun once and got a "smiley" as the call it in the surface of the skin. Yup, had to start over. Yeah, that was a lot of work - to do over again (and again, and again). I probably spent 3 months building and rebuilding new elevators and rudders. I was fairly demoralizing at times. But, they look perfect to my eye now, so it was worth it!
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All New Elevators

All New Elevators

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All New Elevators

All New Elevators

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All New Elevators

All New Elevators

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