Upper rudder fairing skin crack

[JDBoston]

Because apparently it is a rule that stupid things happen late at night I ended up cracking the thin rudder skin last night while trying to get the faring to be where it didn’t want to be(truth be told it was because I tried to remove it with that last cleco still in)

Is this repairable? Normally at this phase of building, I would try to fashion some sort of a metal strip and repair somehow here. I have an email into support but haven’t heard back yet. The thing that makes me hesitate is just knowing that weight is very sensitive on the rudder or at least I think it is and I don’t want to do anything dangerous. The metal portion that was damaged is where the fairing attaches to the skin in the corner photo attached. Ignore the discoloration that’s just dust as the rudder has been finished for years

 

[Kyle Boatright]

Very repairable. That is a non-structural area. Clean up the crack, stop drill it, and move on. When the time comes to attach the fairing, I'd glue it on using proseal and the spec'd fasteners OR I'd fiberglass over that seam and the crack.

 

[wirejock]

Very repairable. That is a non-structural area. Clean up the crack, stop drill it, and move on. When the time comes to attach the fairing, I'd glue it on using proseal and the spec'd fasteners OR I'd fiberglass over that seam and the crack.

G-FLEX with a tiny bit of flox. Epoxy. Very aggressive. Used it to attach counterweights and tips. Just in case fasteners fail.