With the Spar caps drilled to the rear spar of the vertical stabilizer completed during the EAA 1218 workshop, I got started finishing the work on the rear spar.

• back drilled the spar flange to the caps
• removed and deburred all of the holes 
• Reassembled, and attached the rudder hinge brackets, and match drilled them
• Machine Countersink rear spar web 1/8" holes below the top rudder attach bracket holes
• Attached Inspar ribs, front spar, and top rib, match drilled
• Attach and match drill nose ribs

After building the skeleton, I set out to attach the skin.  I had read on other build logs, that the nose ribs were a tad long, and that if I tried to force the skin on, I would create marks on the skin.  The advice was to remove some material, up to 1/8" from the front of the ribs.  I also checked with Dennis Keller who is at about the same stage in his building to see if he was going to be doing the same thing.  The answer was yes.  I marked the nose ribs 1/8" in, to use as my maximum, after checking that I had proper edge distance from any holes on the flange.  I used the 6" scotch-brite wheel to remove the pointed section of the rib where the web bends to the flange, and generally made that a smoother transition.  I only removed about 1/16" of material.  I reattached the nose ribs, and could see that the holes would come much closer to lining up, without having  to use a lot of force on the skin, yet still fit snugly.  I had to use several clecos to work the ribs into aligning with the skin holes.  It was pretty cool to insert a cleco, and watch the next 2 or 3 holes line up.  The rule is, if it doesn't fit, you are doing something wrong.  It is encouraging when you put two pieces of metal together and all the holes line up.