I had started on the bottom rudder fiberglass the other day. It came with scribe lines to supposedly guide where to make the skin intersection cut as well as the big cutout for the rudder stop. It turns out the part's shape is goofy enough that the rudder stop cutout was a mile off. Also, the front curve is too pinched and won't fit around the front rudder spar like it's supposed to. I ended up cutting a big 1" section off forward of the stop. The same issue occurs aft of the stop - the aluminum pushes the fiberglass out so much that it won't sit flush. I cut all of this off and will put new glass down that is shaped to the aluminum parts.
I don't have pictures of it, but I laid out and drilled the rivet holes that will attach the fiberglass to the metal flange that protrudes from the bottom of the rudder.
I put packing tape on the rudder stop and surrounding pieces (it makes it a little easier to pull the fiberglass off), then laid up a number of layers to conform to the shape. The white cloth over the top of it is not part of the permanent fiberglass. If you put "peel ply" over the wet fiberglass, it absorbs the excess epoxy. Then, when it's all dry you rip off the peel ply and it creates a surface that can take more epoxy without any (or as much) sanding. The fiberglass I laid up is just to get the base shape set that actually fits around all of the rudder parts. I'll still have to contour everything using micro.
The aft end of the rudder needs to be set up to accept a mounting bracket for the rear strobe light. I laid out the holes and cut/drilled them.
The bolts I ordered for the elevator counterweights arrived today, so I attached the weights on both elevators. The outside counterweight will be covered by the elevator fiberglass tips, but the weight on the inside is left in the open. I think it looks awful, but I'm not sure there's a great way to hide it. I'll have to do a little research and see. I'm sure 99% of people just leave it as-is. It has to be left accessible until at least the paint goes on, because you have to be able to drill holes in it to remove material to balance the controls. So the only way to hide it would be to do something post-paint, which is not ideal. I might just go the route of taking a hot chisel and "ironing" the surface to smooth it out. That would make it look a lot better.
