It was time for (insert drum roll here…) the dreaded elevator tab bend. Folllowing Vans’ directions, I cut blocks out of a piece of very hard red oak. I did some practice bends with the blocks and a vise, and everything seemed to be working. So, I jigged up the blocks and left elevator skin on the bench.

Following the directions further, I started bending the lower tab. Well, it didn’t come out so good…

Despite two big clamps, two-sided tape and a precisely measured bend line, the block wasn’t positioned quite well enough for nice, crisp bend. It doesn’t look really bad, but I decided to cut my losses by cutting the tabs off and inserting a bench-formed ‘riblet’. Here it is…

Not too bad, I think. By the way, if you have the same problem and decide to make a riblet, the hardwood wedge used to bend the elevator tabs also makes a good forming block for the riblet – assuming you make the wedge the same angle as the elevator trailing edge (11 degrees is what I measured). Just make sure you have the block’s edges appropriately radiused.

Here’s the block inserted in the elevator skin…looks like a good fit! I don’t know yet if I’ll install it web in (with solid rivets) or web out (with blind rivets).