I decided to move ahead and see if I can slam out the rudder in the next day or two. First thing was to cut the stiffeners. These are angles that flush rivet to the rudder skin, which is significantly thinner than the HS and VS skins. Since there are no ribs other than the end ribs on the control surfaces (rudder & elevators), the stiffeners keep it from flexing.
There are 8 stiffeners that go on each side of the skin. Cutting involved trimming them to length from the stock, cutting the taper (where the stiffener lies in the trailing edge), and using the ScotchBrite wheel on the bench grinder to debur the edges. Here's the complete set, ready to be final drilled to the skin.
And here's one side, drilled and clecoed to the skin.
After both sides are final drilled, the stiffeners are removed, and the holes are deburred and dimpled.
I decided that it would be kind of a pain to hang all 16 of these and do the brush-on Alodine method. I had heard about people soaking their parts in Alodine baths to get a more complete conversion. So this is the frame for such a thing.
As you can see, here are 7 of the stiffeners, already having been cleaned/etched with Alumiprep and Alodined in the new bath. It definitely works better to soak the parts rather than brushing. They take on a much deeper gold color, indicating a more thorough Alodining. Here they are, hanging and drying before being primed.
