Buying an RV-9 Tail Kit
When I got there he had pulled most of the pieces and parts out of the storage locker. The assemblies were well protected and were wrapped up in blue polystyrene foam. Everything in the storage locker was covered in accumulated dust and sand from the desert. It had been untouched for almost 5 years. I opened up the various parts - elevators, horizontal stabilizer, vertical stabilizer, rudder, and dusted everything off as best as I could. This took quite a while. I looked everything over and they were as advertised. A couple of minor dings to repair, and some work still required on some of the parts, but nothing too bad. I'll need to re-rivet an elevator, put the trailing edge wedges in the elevator and rudder, and get the fiberglass tips installed before the tail is complete.
He also threw in a bunch of tools and parts. I ended up with a brand new band saw, bench grinder, drill press, air compressor, hundreds of clecos, a C-frame dimpler and some storage containers and other miscellaneous consumables (paints/primers/lubes). The power tools alone were worth much more than the total price I paid of $500. The tail kit alone is $1620. The tail kit also included the electric trim option which is $300. What a deal!
I left there with our old minivan piled to the ceiling with stuff. When I got home I started unpacking and trying to find places in the garage for everything. I got the bench grinder and band saw put back together. I will need to get a 3M cut and polish wheel for the grinder, and a metal cutting blade for the band saw. I got the compressor reassembled and moved out my old one (it is probably over 30 years old). I still need to inventory everything and sort out all of the various rivets and hardware. Next step is to get the rest of the necessary tools needed to build the airplane.
Here is a picture of the tail pieces.
