In order to finish up the Rudder, I still had to prime the inner mating surfaces of the skin, so in order to get ahead I decided to also prepare the parts for the Vertical Stabilizer and prime those as well.

After removing all the protective plastic from the parts and inspecting them, I unfortunately found that there was some dents in Rib 1, 2 and 3, so I requested replacements from the factory since those are structural parts that shouldn’t be compromised.

I still went ahead and cleaned and degreased all the other parts. Luckily it’s getting a bit warmer, so I could leave the garage door open and do the cleaning outside, to make less of a mess in the garage.

Once I was done cleaning all the parts with Simple Green, degreasing them with MEK and rubbing them down with red scotch brite, I set up my small paint booth and primed everything.