I spent some time cleaning and reorganizing the garage, including building a couple of storage racks for the elevators. I stored them out of the way and then put some loose zip ties on to keep them from falling off.
Then it was time to start on the aft fuselage, and I was able to complete the first few steps, separating parts and straightening a couple of stiffeners.
Several of these pieces were snipped or hack-sawed into separate pieces, including the plastic rudder cable guides. In the picture you can see the open crate in the background. I’ve been storing the skins and stringers in there for months, and it’s good to start pulling them out.
I trimmed and final drilled a few pieces, and then straightened these doublers. Here you can see the “before and after” where one piece is straightened and one is how it arrived. These bend as a result of the hole punching process. Straightening involves putting them in the vice, putting some tension on the part, then pounding with a rubber mallet. The majority of time is spent fine tuning, and having some patience is important.
