Leon,

 

You have too much time and money invested to "patch" the vertical stabilizer.  I would take the whole thing off and do it again.  I was one of the wing skin remover guys and it's really not a big deal.  Use a heat gun and some vise grips to peel off any layups.  Don't use heat when you separate the bonded surfaces.  They will get distorted.  Just use wood chisels and any other suitable wedges to carefully tap the bonded surfaces apart.  The key is to have the surfaces separating just ahead of the wedges so you don't cut into the skin.

 

The leading edge would be just like the joggle on the leading edge of the wing and a 1" wood chisel would take care of that in a few minutes.  The arch at the front and the seams along the sides would come apart very easily.  Where the bottom of the vertical stab bonds to the top of the horiz stab, you could chisel it apart.  Or you could grind or cut it close to the horiz stab.  I would be very careful not to damage the horiz stab.  Use longer wedges to work along the ribs and you should be able to separate the left side first.  The tough part will be the bottom of the sternpost that is in the horseshoe shaped aft end of the fuselage.  But there's no core in the fuselage so you should be able to get wedges in there.

 

If you get any damage to the inner skins of the vertical stab skin you can patch them.

 

It took less than 4 hours to remove an entire ES wing skin including the layups.  I bet you could have the tail off in less than that.

 

Have you already cut off the rudder?

 

Mike Easley

Colorado Springs