Today, I started fabricating the trim tab hinge from an 18" piano hinge (AN257-P2).  I got the trim tab side of the hinge drilled, de-burred, and cleco'd to the trim tab.  Looked really GOOD.

I then re-installed the hinge pin to line up the left elevator side of the hinge.  I drilled the first couple of holes by folding over the hinge and drilling the hole.  This aligned the rivet lines between the trim tab and the left elevator.  I then was able to cleco the hinge to the elevator rear spar.

I then had a brain fart and decided that the left elevator side of the hinge was required to be countersunk in order to accept the flush rivets that would be set attaching it to the left elevator.  AFTER drilling all of the holes, I remembered that the top side of the left elevator rear spar was countersunk, and therefore, required no countersinking of the trim tab hinge (NOTE TO SELF:  write Van's a check for another $3 for a new hinge).

If that wasn't my only problem, the holes in the trim tab hinge (elevator side) got elongated / distorted from the countersinking (probably why Van's doesn't have you do this).

The extra hole came from when I folded the hinge over to drill the holes in the hinges such that they lined up between the elevator and trim tab sides.  This worked with the exception of the hole to the inside (or right side) of the elevator hinge.  The edge of the elevator is angled therefore the rivet line is not straight forward to aft, but angled to line up with the edge of the elevator.

Now I have to wait for a new hinge.

Tonight, I started the task I have have been dreading which was to bend the elevator and trim tabs.  I set up the blocks in accordance with Van's limited instructions.  I was able to bend the tabs, however, they look very amateur.  They are not real smooth or extremely straight.  Van's instructions on how to do this S_CK!!!!  It is not so much about what they say, it is what they leave out...

After, what I consider mediocre results, I ventured onto the web to see if I could find a better way.

It looks like my frustration with this is cosmetic only and no one will ever know the difference at 200 mph at 10,000 ft.

If you look closely at the picture below, you can see where the trim tab is not straight from top to bottom especially at the top of the photograph (top is forward on elevator).

Just a different angle.  Like I say, I believe this to be cosmetic only.

Part of my mediocre results was due to the fact that the wood blocks moved approximately 1/8" which was 4x more movement than I expected from Van's instructions.  Additionally, with the two individual blocks, they would tend to buckle when they were hit with the rivet hammer.

In the picture below, I am using to Quik-Grip clamps with 1" x 3" blocks.  Don't do this!!!  Read on and I will tell you why.

Just another picture showing all the Quik-Grip clamps I am using.  If you look closely, you will also see some vise grip clamps in there too.  I used all of these Quik-Grip clamps because the elevator would move when hit with the rivet hammer.  Again, don't do this....  Read on...

The picture below is of the trim tab.  These bends look great.  I changed my method here and it worked ALOT BETTER. 

Notice that on the trim tab, I am using a 2" x 4" which is one piece of wood and a SINGLE C-Clamp.  This resulted in excellent bends.

Okay, here is what I learned from this evolution:

• Start bending with the trim tab.  It is a smaller piece and if you screw it up, it is cheaper to replace.  It will take at least one bend to see how all this is going to work.
• DO NOT, and I repeat, DO NOT use Quik-Clamps to clamp the elevator and wood blocks.  You physically cannot get enough clamping force to hold the piece when hitting it with the rivet hammer.  If you don't already have some, go and get some C-Clamps.  Use at least two to hold the wood blocks.  I got by with 1 C-Clamp from the picture above, but I was lucky.  Besides, all I had was one C-Clamp.
• DO use double sided sticky tape.  When clamped, that really helps hold the blocks to the aluminum.  You will see what I mean when you go to remove the wood block from the trim tab after it has been clamped.
• DO NOT use any block of wood smaller (narrower) than a 2"x4".  The wider the block is, the better.  When you hit the tabs with the rivet hammer, it wants to buckle the blocks.  If you have a wider block in the trim tab or elevator, the less this tendency will be.
• DO use one block of wood if possible.  If you look at the trim tab photo above, I am using one block of a 2" x 4".  I mathematically guesstimated the angle of the trim tab and ran a band saw blade through the block at that angle.  The band saw blade removed just enough wood that the trim tab skin could be inserted in that slit.  I then used the C-Clamp to clamp down on it.  I put double sided tape on the outside of the 2" x 4" (bottom side and inside of the trim tab, obviously, double sided tape could not be put into the "slit" created by the band saw).  This arrangement did not even budge when struck with the rivet hammer.  Additionally, with the block not cut into two pieces, it eliminated the tendency of the blocks to "buckle" when hit with the rivet hammer.

After I was done, I did a rough fit of the trim tab to the elevator and it appears that I will have roughly 7 to 8/32" gap between the elevator and the trim tab.  Van's requires a minimum gap of 3/32" of a gap.  I should have the minimum clearance!!!!

Tonight, I wasn't really in the mood to work on the left elevator.  Remember, everything I stated learned up to this date; has been flushed...

My goal, anyway, was to back rivet the stiffeners onto the elevator skin, bend over the skin, insert the elevator skeleton, and final drill all remaining holes.

Well, I DIDN'T MAKE IT!!!!  In the pictures below, you can see that one of the stiffeners got bent over when I attempted to back rivet the farthest rivet on the elevator trailing edge (DAMAGED STIFFENER:  E-720J, BOTTOM SIDE).

Well, the reason that this got bent over is that I used the flush rivet set in the rivet hammer instead of the back rivet set.  I should have picked up my first clue I was doing something wrong when I had to drill out one rivet on the bottom side that set "high" and was not flush with the skin.

This rivet set below is what I should have used.  Below, you see a spring loaded sleeve on the end of the rivet set.  This spring and sleeve arrangement holds to the two pieces of aluminum together tightly while the rivet hammer recoils.  Without the two pieces being riveted held tightly together, it can result in a rivet that sets high -OR- in my case, a bent stiffener.

This is what happens when your mind is not on the task at hand!!

I was fortunate to have some blank stiffener stock (from a Van's training kit) and fabricated a new stiffener.  In the training kit, no holes or cutouts are marked.  I used the damaged stiffener to transfer all dimensions to the "blank" stiffener material.

The fabrication of the new stiffener took me less than 1/2 hour.  However, since I prime most internal surfaces with AZKO 2-part epoxy primer, it took me another 3 hours to get the new stiffener (and a couple of additional parts) primed.  DANG!!!

The new stiffener turned out GREAT, but it just made for a frustrating night.

The new stiffener looked so good, you can't tell it from the partially fabricated stiffeners that come with the kit.

I got my replacement parts from Van's and began re-work of the whole assembly.  Everything was going well today.  All of my previous mistakes were corrected until I went to drill the main rib to the front spar.   I thought that I was being very careful drilling the hole, however, when I was complete, the drill wandered like it did the first time (didn't drill straight).  Don't ask me how I got two separate holes on this flange.  Just me being dumb.  Lesson learned AGAIN the hard way.  This is for the right side main rib.  I continued on to drill the left side and I was happy how that turned out.

AN IDEA FOR THE NEXT TIME I TRY TO DO THIS:

• Get the two center holes drilled where the nose rib, front spar, and the main rib join together.  Then remove the skin on that side's skin and drill the remaining two holes with the skins removed.  Drill from the front spar reinforcement through the main rib.  Doing it the other way (aft to forward) has resulted in the drill bit wandering and left me with a poorly drilled hole.  Drill first with a #40 that way if the drill bit wanders, as long as it isn't to bad, it will clean itself up when you final drill to a size #30.  If you can't line up perpendicular to the spar reinforcement, consider use of the long drill bits to get as close to the 90 degree as possible.  My drill chuck would have rubbed on the nose rib (which can be removed if you take the time to remove your skin) with the shorter drill bits.  The right angle drill didn't help here either as the drill head also got in the way of the nose rib.

After disassembly of the horizontal stabilizer, I was able to better see the mis-drilling in the pictures for this log entry.

This turned out to be very disappointing.  As you can see on the main rib (HS-405, right side), one of the holes turned out to be double drilled.  The rib must have moved while I was match drilling.  I decided that this double hole would not adequately hold the rib to the spar after riveting.

The main rib (HS-405, left side) has the top hole very close to the edge of the flange.  I went back and measured the distance from the edge of the flange to the edge of the hole.  It was less than one hole diameter.  I decided that this tool was not a condition I wanted to leave in the final assembly.

Therefore, I ordered two new main ribs (HS-405), front spars (HS-702) and front spar reinforcement angle (HS-714) from Van's.  This replaces all the parts I felt needed replacement due to my drilling mistakes.

Additional Note:  You have to drill a relief notch in the front spars (HS-702).  If you don't read the print and Van's instructions carefully, you will end up with a notch(s) that look like these.  The front spars are made to fit both the RV-7 and the RV-8.  My first relief notch was at the end of the factory spar flange.  However, after reading the print closer, there is a little note called "STEP 1", which states to trim the spar flange back to the bend line...  HUH?!?!  Get out the ruler!!  Dang, is anything going to go right????  I just assumed that the bend line would be at the end of the flange.  I didn't even consider the fact that Van's is using this same part on multiple planes.  Won't make that mistake again, I hope.

I finishing fitting horizontal stabilizer components and after clecoing all the skins on the horizontal stabilizer, all holes were match drilled.  The vinyl coating was stripped using a soldering iron so that the holes could be de-burred and later dimpled.  Tami was a tremendous help de-burring all the holes on both skins.

Below, I was trying to drill the main rib, nose rib, and front spar on the left hand side of the horizontal stabilizer.  Per the instructions, I measured 1/2 inch from the last hole (shown by the silver cleco), marked and drilled the hole.  The hole came out good with the exception that it appeared closer to the edge of the spar reinforcement than I would like.  A review of the drawing indicated that the 1/2" mark for the hole in the spar reinforcement should have been 1/2" from the edge of the nose rib FLANGE being held by the silver cleco.  I have just over 1 hole diameter from the edge of the spar reinforcement.  I would prefer to have 2 hole diameters.