General build order question...

s10sakota · Post by **s10sakota** » Tue Jan 17, 2012 6:52 am

When do I screw in the rod ends to the tail pieces? All of my empennage kit is almost complete and I would like to connect the rudder to the VS, and the elevators to the HS.

But if I screw in the rod ends now, won't I have to remove all of them later when I paint?

Or would I just tape off the rod end hinges when I paint? It seems like removing them would be a better way to paint the pieces, but removing all of them would be difficult and any alignment details would be lost.

What did you guys do?

cjensen · Post by **cjensen** » Tue Jan 17, 2012 7:29 am

I never got to paint with mine before it was sold, but the rudder and elevators will be off and on a few times in the process to get them rigged properly. That said, once they are in and positioned for rigging, don't remove them. I would just tape over them for paint.

Bob Barrett · Post by **Bob Barrett** » Tue Jan 17, 2012 4:14 pm

When my airplane was painted the the wings, cowl, gear leg fairings, wheel pants, wing tips, aileroons, flaps, vertical & horizontal stabilizer, elevators, rudder and canopy were all sperate. You can easily tape the bearings etc for painting. I had all of these4 mounted one or more times before taking to the paint shop. Actually my wheel pants, gear leg fairings, wing tips etc were all painted after the airplane had been flying for about a year.