Well, after a few days of no work, then a few more of yardwork, and a few more of more no work, I made it into the garage tonight for an hour of work. Now that summer is approaching, the garage is getting a little humid. I’m going to start thinking about buying a portable air conditioner.
Tonight’s main task was to get any piece of the right elevator ready for assembly. E-709 (Root rib right) seemed to be a good candidate.
On the right, my trusty scotchbrite pad. In the middle, E-709 (Root Rib right). On the left. Well. You may call that beer. I call it "delicious."
Anyway, after deburring and scuffing, I broke out the #40 tank dies (understructure, so I want the dimples slightly deeper) and did all but the aft two holes on top and bottom.
Dimpling.
For my hard to reach places, I use a steel bar with a countersunk hole in it, put the hole of interest on top, and put in a sacrificial rivet to use as a male dimple die. Then, I grab a flush set, and push the rivet into the hole in the steel.
Getting ready to ghetto-dimple.
Here’s a closeup of my steel bar for you to admire. The hole on the right is what I use for these tasks.
The hole on the left is useless, since I drilled it too far away from the edge of the bar. Dumb me.
Anyway, here’s a shot of one side of the E-709 after using this technique.
The bottom dimple is from the tank dies, the top two are with the rivet trick. Not perfect, but not bad for the hard-to-reach area. Based on my experiences on the rudder, the skin will sit just fine in these dimples.
Off to the paint-shop. And by paint-shop, I mean “a piece of cardboard on my trash and recycling bins.”
Up with the garage door for ventilation and on with the respirator before shooting the first coat.
While that dried, I snapped an action shot of me devinyling the inside of the skins. I also deburred all of the exterior sides of the recently drilled holes, but didn’t get to the insides, I’ll do that as soon as I get back into the shop.
Oh man, those stiffeners and rivets look nice.
Here are both interior sides done. (And by “done” I mean “done devinyling with just the parts I’m going to deburr, scuff, dimple, and prime.”) The rest of the vinyl will come off just before riveting, and will reveal nice untouched (and unprimed) alclad.
Pretty pretty.
Crap, I forgot to take a picture of me shooting primer on the other side of E-709, which is the entire basis for the title of today’s post. If you feel shortchanged, feel free to complain.
One hour.
Andrew's RV-7 Build Log 
I just love these log entries. I check them almost every day — very informative and highly entertaining. You, sir, have a knack for writing good builder logs. It’s especially touching that you show real concern for the rivets’ feelings… Looking forward to future entries!