Tailcone Side Skins Final Prep and Prime

It was a fairly warm day at the hangar today, but super windy, so I had to close the hangar doors frequently to prevent skins from being blown off tables!

Today, I did the painstaking task of deburring the holes of the LEFT tailcone side skin this time. Then I dimpled all the holes that needed to be dimpled save for the longeron holes in anticipation of replacing the longeron due to an edge distance issue on one of the bolt holes in the aft tailcone (that’s another story for another day).

Then I deburred the edges of both the right and left side tailcone skins, and used a Dremel to debur the rudder cable cut-outs and flanges at the forward ends of the skins. Then it was primer prep time for the inner surfaces. The usual light scuffing with grey Scotch-Brite, then a good wipe-down with acetone did the trick. Then both skin interiors were primed.