RE: repairs for beginners
I am working on a similar repair on an Avistar Dave.
I think I will follow your route and post a repair thread for it. I have 2 wings to repair (2 separate wings, long story, don't ask), need to glue in the firewall I cut last week after I drill the proper holes in it, and then reglue the rudder in (will probably put small verticle dowels into the rudder and the fuse to add some strength.
I don't have much time to work on it currently, so maybe during x-mas break I will get some done.