Last week we finished the Horizontal Stabilizer, this weekend we built the Vertical Stabilizer.
After fitting everything together with clecos and match drilling the rivet holes we dimpled the skin. This is a picture of the skin on the dimpling machine. The skin is squeezed between a top and bottom die to form the dimple. I've included a close-up of a completed dimple below. The blue film is a protective coating. If you click on the picture it will enlarge it.
After dimpling and polishing the edges of all parts Mark applies a chromate primer to protect against corrosion.
Mark is using a pneumatic squeezer to rivet the renforcement plate on the main spar of the Vertical Stabilizer.
This shot is of Mark and I riveting the skin on the Vertical Stabilizer. I'm holding the bucking bar on the back side of the rivet while Mark uses the rivet gun to hammer the rivet.
This is the end result, one completed Vertical Stabilizer. Mark was very pleased with it.
Lexi wasn't impressed.
