I picked up where I left off on the horizontal stabilizer.  I re-fabricated the HS-714 front spar reinforcement I bought and got that drill successfully.  I also got the main rib (HS-405) on the right side drilled successfully.  I did not fabricate a new front spar.  Upon further examination, it looked really good.

When I got all this fit together, I believe that I have SUCCESS.. ON TO PRIMING>>>>

Today, we did a ton of prepping the aluminum for priming.  Tami helped me by alumiprepping the aluminum and scrubbing the parts.  I rinsed and alodined the parts when she was done.  This has to be the largest number of parts we have done at one time.

One thing that I chose to do different with the horizontal stabilizer is to prime the inside of the skins.  I had some pretty good scratches from all the dry fitting of parts together so many times.  I also rationalized that it would be easier for contaminant to get into and remain in the horizontal stabilizer resulting in corrosion.  I am really happy with the way the skins turned out.  I tape over the holes thinking that they might result in paint on the outsides of the skins.  It was not necessary to tape the outsides or edges of the skins.  There was primer on the outside, but it was nothing more than dry dust.  I just wiped it off with a rag and acetone.

I ended up using in the neighborhood of 24 oz of primer to do all of the horizontal stabilizer parts (I had to mix up 3 different batches.  Didn't want to make up more than I needed).

This was my best looking priming job yet.  I still have a few runs and where the primer came into contact with my wire hooks and or the chicken wire is wet with primer, it will tend to pull the primer off of the freshly painted parts.  Let the pats dry before trying to turn them over.  Putting the parts on the wood blocks helped a little.  At least it gave me more room in the paint booth for parts being worked on.

My paint gun settings were really good for coverage, but I had more over spray than I have had on previous priming efforts.  I would have to spend about 2 hrs cleaning up the garage the next morning.