RV-12 Builder in Sandy, UT: Reassembly Continues

The first thing I did today was remove the upper tail cone fairing. I realized last night that I did not torque the 2-AN4 bolts holding the stabilator in place. I torqued them this morning then reinstalled the upper tail cone fairing.

Next I then installed the upper fuselage skin. I neglected to take photos, but after the upper fuselage skin I installed the canopy, engine cowlings and spinner.

At that point I rolled the fuselage outside and took a couple of photos. The wind was blowing and it deflected the rudder as you can see in the straight on shot.

I pushed the airplane back into the hangar only to discover I was too close to the wing. In my efforts to move it over I scratched the top of the wing with the stabilator. My first hangar rash.

That only goes along with some other damaged paint from the reassembly process. There is a spot just behind the engine cowl by the exhaust pipe. There is a spot under the leading edge of the left flaperon. I have certainly caused some problems putting this thing back together.

There is also a need to do some painting on the upper fuselage skin. After the reassembly I have decided to do the stripe at the canopy arms a little differently than originally planned. I was going to have Dave paint some white in the recessed area at the canopy arm attachment point. I've decided not to do that. I will just have him paint the strip across the lower fuselage skin and let it go at that. I am happy with the way that area has turned out.

The forward ends of the canopy arms also need to be repainted with red paint. Dave is going to do this when he paints and touches up the white. I removed the canopy so he can get to the forward sections of the arms.