Tonight represents the 2nd day Tami has been at her folks...  TIME TO BUILD!!!

After priming all parts (including the skin), it was time to back rivet all the stiffeners on the skin.  This went very smoothly.  the last rivet on the trailing edges was a little tough, but they all came out great.

Once the stiffeners were in place, it was time to make the final bend in the elevator skin so that the skin will lay nice and straight when riveted to the elevator skeleton.  In order to make the final bend, I had to make the makeshift brake to fold the skins over.  I used two 2" x 8" x 8' and trimmed one to 7 foot long.

NOTE:  This brake is too long.  It appears you could cut this down to 5 foot with no problems.  the only problem I have with it being so big is that it is just awkward to handle.

After completing the brake, I set the skin in the brake and bent it over.  It took several tries with the skin progressively farther from the hinges in order to get a nice bend.  I am still not thrilled with the bend, but I tried everything I could think of to make that bend as sharp as possible.  I now see why Van's made the new rudder the way they did (alot sharper and crisper trailing edge).

Once I got the bend done on the skins, I inserted the elevator skeleton, cleco's and final drilled all remaining holes.