Pulled out the major parts and plans for the vertical stab. The horizontal stab took me entirely too long to complete. Taking a class beforehand (if it wasn’t canceled) would have really helped. But now I think I’ve got a really good handle on it, and I’m hoping to make quick work of this vertical stab!
There’s only one thing of importance to say; the horizontal stabilizer is done!
Here are a few pictures. The process went fairly easy. I did have one AN470 rivet that I put a really bad smiley in. It was severe enough that I felt compelled to drill the rivet out and replace. Drilling it out went smoothly and the new rivet was fine. I did all the riveting by myself without a riveting buddy. Two tools were absolutely essential in doing this myself. First, the tungsten bucking bars. They are small and heavy so they are perfect for tight spaces. Second, Jack gave me a swivel mushroom set (like this one at Cleveland Tool). The pivoting head combined with a very large rubber ring allows the gun to not be perfectly aligned without much danger of slipping or moving out. It was far more effective than the standard set. These two things combined allowed me to do all of the rivets without a single screw up.
On the topic of tools, I used the pneumatic rivet squeezer today, and loved it! I had to switch out one part in order to adjust it, but it works great! I actually prefer it to the hand squeezer for AN426 type rivets.
Here is the repair of my bad dimple from several weeks ago. A little JB weld to fill the crack and drill stop.
