I’m going to have to get a heater for the garage really soon. Luckily it was quite warm here today, and so it remained nice outside well into the evening, but that won’t last. That, in turn, is going to be a concern if I intend to keep trying to put in shop time in the evenings after work.
Anyway, my first order of business tonight as to rivet the nutplates onto the trim reinforcement plate. The instructions don’t specify to do this now, but it seemed to me that it’d be easier to rivet the nutplates on now as opposed to after the reinforcement plate was attached to the skin. However, ever mindful that there might be a good reason to wait, I read all the way through the elevator instructions. At no point did I see them specifically say to rivet the nutplates on, so I presume this is one of those little details that they leave to the builder.
Then it was on to dimpling the skins. Nothing to really write home about here; it’s just dimpling. I finished by wiping the skins down with acetone before putting them away for the night. I learned back when it was hot that leaving sweat on the skins can make the alclad coating look nasty. I’m not sure if it’s actually damaging to the skins or not, but it seems to smart to play it safe; so I’ve made a habit of always wiping the skins down after a shop session.
I probably won’t be able to get to back riveting the stiffeners until this weekend. Tis the season for holiday gatherings; I’ve got mine tomorrow night and Josie wants me to come to hers Wednesday. Thursday night we’re going to Cirque do Soleil, and who knows what might be going on Friday.
A beautiful baby trim reinforcement is born:
