I got a surprise today! I ordered the replacement trim tab spar on Monday, and I half expected to get a note from Van's saying that parts are delayed and it would be weeks or months before I would receive it. They must still have enough raw material in stock to keep a supply of individual parts though because they shipped right away and I received the part today. I also ordered some fuel tank sealant ("Proseal" but a different brand) since I need that to finish the trim tab itself, and I'll also need it sooner rather than later when I start the fuel tanks.
Since I already had the elevator set up to start back riveting the top stiffeners in place, I went ahead and finished up with that before redoing the trim tab spar. I was originally assuming I would squeeze the rivets for the trim servo doubler, but figured I might as well back rivet that too.
From the outside you can now see how that doubler works - it's mounted inside the elevator so that the servo mount plate itself will nest on top of it and screw into the nuplates, leaving everything flush on the outside.
Now it was time for take two on the trim tab spar. I couldn't really match drill the spar in place since the mating skins are already dimpled, so I just reamed the holes to the proper size. These parts have been so accurate that I highly doubt it'll cause any trouble during assembly. Learning from my previous mistake, I clamped a piece of wood to the back side of the flange that gets countersunk. Then I drilled matching holes into the wood. The idea is that on material this thin, the wood will give the pilot of the countersink bit a guide once it's through the material. It worked much, much better and the holes turned out great.
I wasn't about to set up the spray gun to shoot primer on one part, so I just pulled out the spray can primer instead. I'm sure my twitching from having two different colors of primer will go away in a few days. This will eventually get painted anyway, so it doesn't really matter. It'll just be a reminder of the first (probably not last) part I screwed up.
