DATE: 02/05/2025 – TIME: 2:03 – 5:17 ~ 3:10
Completing the process of attaching the Zenith 750 SD horizontal stabilizer skins to the horizontal stabilizer skeleton.
The goal today is to finish attaching the horizontal stabilizer skin to the horizontal stabilizer skeleton. I don’t think I mentioned this before, but so far I have been able to complete all of the assembly on my own. It is taking a little longer than I would have liked but I am making a number of edits to the IPL spreadsheet that passes as I go. Hopefully that will be of user to someone in the future.
You will notice in the snapshots that I have three tools I am trading. Generally, I use the hand riveter to push in rivets that I cannot push in by hand. If that doesn’t work reasonably easily then I use the pneumatic drill,rotated by hand, to “clean out” the hole.
When riveting, I riveted from the leading edge, centre, towards the rear spar / trailing edge and both tip ribs. Not sure if this method helps much but I was pretty happy with the end result.
You will notice in these pictures that I still had clecos in the rear spar and doublers. I wanted to leave the process of riveting the doublers to the rear spar web until I had the skin and doublers riveted in place in the hopes that it would improve alignment.
I received a question / comment about how to attach the skin to the skeleton so I clipped a piece of the video and have attached it below. Essentially I just followed the instructions provided in the IPL document and used a 12ft 2 x 4 to push down on the skin.
2 thoughts on “Zenith 750 SD Horizontal Stabilizer Assembly – Skin Attachment”
This is great. I started my SD project March 30th. Currently working on attaching the stabilizer skin to the frame. How did you pull the skin down onto the frame? I’m thinking of using ratchet strips. Thanks
Hi Bruce. It sounds like you did not get a copy, or have not found, the IPL files that provides the purported assembly instructions. Anyway, the instructions say to use a 12ft x 2 x 4 to help press the skin down onto the skeleton, which is what I did.
I have added a video clip of the process for you to take a look at. I would not recommend using tie down / ratchet strips because you risk kinking the skin. The long 2 x 4 keeps the pressure more even and is much less likely to create a crease / kink.