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VS and Rudder glass tips

Tom Martin

Well Known Member
The glass tips for the RV14 VS and rudder are ok quality but do not line up very well. Here are a few pictures of how I make the corrections so that everything lines up. There are many ways to tackle this job, this is my way.

The VS is a bit too thick at the top and does not line up properly with the narrower rudder tip. After drilling the VS tip to the VS I remove it and cut the part in half and clean up the edges for bonding. Then, using a bent piece of aluminium to get the proper shape I bond the two halves back together

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Of the two parts the "high spot" is about six inches aft of the forward face of the rudder. We need to get these two parts to line up. The next step is to add a mix of flox, micro, to the top of the VS faring to get the height required. Then the forward part of the rudder needs to have some material added so that both parts line up properly. Sanding, and adding a final layer of glass to both parts completes the rough work. The rest is just sanding, filling, sanding etc.

A cap has to be made to close the aft end of the VS tip and Vans describes a simple way of doing this in the instructions. Basically you make a flat piece of two layers of glass on a waxed piece of aluminum. When cured this is trimmed and bonded to the aft surface of the VS tip.

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The final pic shows the two parts lining up in what I feel is aesthetically pleasing. It looks a bit like a Mustang tail profile?

I end up pop riveting and then actually glassing the finished tips to the metal parts. This leaves a very clean and professional finish to the painted parts. If the tips are ever damaged they will be relatively easy to patch. It the part is very badly damaged then you will likely be building a whole new rudder or VS anyways.

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Very nice, I really like the way blended tips look. I'll bookmark this thread so I remember. Did you also fill your rivet heads on the rudder skins?
 
The only rivet heads that are covered are the pop rivets on the tips. The other rivets heads are all visible. Filling all the rivet heads on the rudder would not be a good idea as we really want the weight to be kept to a minimum.
 
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