Elevators and trim tabs almost ready for sealant

With the specialized bucking bar, it was actually quite easy to set the rear spar rivets to attach the second skin (just a bit annoying to see inside):

Second-skin rear spar rivets - not much room for a bucking bar

All rear spar rivets in place - easier than expected, albeit with minor primer damage

The hardest part with those was actually holding the rivet size gauge in there to see if they were set to the right size - measuring the height is plain impossible, and measuring the diameter requires spreading the skins apart and feeling your way to the rivet with your fingers. I was being very careful to not overset them (since I couldn't measure the height), so most of them were underset and I had to measure them multiple times.

Additionally, the outboard static wick attachment was a little annoying since it got in the way of the bucking bar, but I ended up setting those last two rivets just fine by holding the bucking bar a little sideways.

We finally had weather and time to do the last elevator primer session:

Results from the final primer session

A few days later I finally installed the static wick doubler/nutplates on the right elevator:

Riveting the static wick doublers to the right elevator

then put it together:

Putting the two skins for the right elevator together

This time, for some reason, it was significantly harder to finish the blind rivets that join the rib halves:

That rivet just wouldn't go in all the way!

so I did recruit someone with smaller hands (my wife):

Small-handed help :)

While attaching the front spar to the ribs, I was, of course, *one* rivet short (order for 40 more already placed):

ONE blind rivet short (on the right)

I also riveted the cable cover plates and screwed them in place after riveting the root ribs - it does look much nicer with flush rivets holding the bracket, and I'll probably later apply some sealant around the edges for a tighter fit (with edge deburring, there's now a tiny gap between the cover plate and the skin opening):

Cover plate secured in place, almost all skin rivets in place

I worked on the trim tabs, bent them in the brake to the right angle:

Bending the trim tabs skins with the brake

Then bent their tabs, dimpled all holes and the countersunk the top spar holes, then bent the front of the skin by 15˚:

I also attached the tip assemblies to the shear brackets:

Tip assembly attached to shear bracket

The only two steps left before sealant are riveting the trim tab spars' bottom flanges/horns to the trim tab skins and setting the tip rib rivets forward of the rear spar - those should be quick, then I'll try to do sealant on both the elevators and trim tabs in one shot.

Time lapse:

Total elevator time: 161h
Total elevator rivets: 1123