After many frustrating hours trying to get this just right, I decided that the halve were close enough and cleco'd everything together. I don't think continuing to work the halves would result in any meaningful gains, probably just more deformation of the skin at this point.

The smallest section was my best effort (it was easy due to the small size), the middle section was next best and the large section was the worst of all three to get together and how it came out. This part will hide behind the vertical stab so no worries, it won't win a Gold Lindy but it is within specs to the best of my knowledge and worst case, a rudder can be rebuilt in about a week if I'm ultimately not happy with how it turned out. So for now, build on.

With everything cleco'd together, it was just a matter of installing the AD-41 ABS pop rivets one at a time making sure the skin halves were mated flat with one another. Everything went well until the very last rivet, the bottom most rivet on the rudder leading edge, I failed to make sure the two halves were perfectly flush with one another and after setting the rivet, I had a noticeable gap. Argh! So now I had my first chance to drill out a pop rivet which I have read can be a pain.

Fortunately it wasn't too bad as I've had a lot of practice drilling out solid rivets already and have a pretty good technique going. So with it removed and the hole cleaned up again, I set the last pop rivet and that was that.

Final steps for the rudder are to attach the counterweight at the top and the two fiberglass parts. None of this has to be done right now at this point in the build so I will hold off on the fiberglass fairings until later in the build.