my bench also has been dormant latly. work has me overloaded and my bench (shop) is my garage and it has no heat. the hi for the last couple of months has been like 8 degrees. i need to get busy cause i have kits lineing up.

mike,
if you dont plan on flyin areobatics i wouldn't worry about changing the rudder. if you want to do some mild areobatics change it accordingly. i plan on goin crazy once in the air. this is just my .02 cents worth though. hopefully someone else will chime in with other suggestions...

krossk,
my chipmunk has a 4 stroke inverted and i had to change my fuel tank height cause it was to high. it kept flooding the carb when i fueled up. after i changed it i have had no problems. as for the head or valve cover on a nose over, i don't worry about it. mine has a couple of scratches on it from the asfault runway, but in the grass it has no effect on it. the valve cover is really thick also. it would take years to grind through it. you could also put a skid plate if you are really concerned about it.