Malformed nose skin dimple

Was moving to fast this afternoon and the skin flexed as I set the dimple. Stupid mistake, setting dimples from the bottom didn?t help, but the scratches should buff out caused by the die.
Anyhow, the hole is malformed and the dimple didn?t fully form in the top left corner. When I dropped a rivet in the dimple, it?s flush With the skin but there?s a tiny space that the rivet head doesn?t cover.
An Oops rivet would probably take care of the elongated hole but the rivet head wouldn?t take up the small space on the skin.
I need to figure out a way to clean up the hole and reform the dimple.
To add insult to injury- it?s a top skin.

I?ve talked to a friend who suggested the oops, but that was before I dropped a rivet in the dimple. Hopefully, there?s a solution without having to replace the nose skin.
Thanks
Jt

Dimple

Looks.like.a tiny crack needs to be dressed out or drilled one size up. If the hole is clean at that point, dimple #30 and move on. If you don't like it, add a rivet equally spaced between the two and abandon the bad hole.

Thanks Larry- I just got off the phone with Vans and they recommended the same. You mentioned a#30 dimple, though it’s a #40 hole. Did you mean a #40 dimple?

A #30 hole and a dimple for a standard 1/8" rivet would be my choice, along with a standard 1/8" rivet (not a reduced head rivet). That is a physically better repair, and other than the one odd sized rivet, I think is a better cosmetic repair than a smaller rivet that has to be "fixed" with filler when it is time to paint.

If there is any question about the hole, drill, dimple, and rivet a 3/32 rivet on each side of the "bad" hole.

Repair

I had a similar problem when a skin slipped just as the dimple die was coming down.

I did as suggested above i.e. installed a 1/8 AN426AD4-4 rivet in a #30 hole and dimple.

The #40 hole needs to be enlarged very carefully since you only have 1/32 inch to play with.
I would cleco the skin onto the ribs and use a round needle file to clean up and align the hole before drilling up to #30.

#30

Jskyking said:

Thanks Larry- I just got off the phone with Vans and they recommended the same. You mentioned a#30 dimple, though it?s a #40 hole. Did you mean a #40 dimple?

Click to expand...

Nope. The hole is already drifting toward #30 with the damage. Once you drill #30, it makes sense to use a #30 dimple and standard 426 #4 rivet. Probably fit perfect and doubt anyone would ever notice.

Just me

If it was me, i would flatten the dimple on the skin, dress out the crack with a file and use another hole. I dont thin it is worth saving this rivet. Also driving a -4 rivet is much more difficult in this area.

I am not an expert, and I havent even finished one plane yet. So this is worth what you paid for it

I had a similar thing happen on my vertical stab. It got ugly when I tried to fix with a -4 rivet

Repaired- carefully flattened dimple w/ DDRT2, drilled with #30 with a slight circular rotation of the drill bit to clean the slight crack, re-dimpled with #30 die, dropped in a #30 rivet...... drilled another #40 hole and dimpled equidistant to next rivet and put a #40 in the hole. I would have put another #40 equidistant on the other side of the repaired hole, but it fell on on a flute. Vans said I would be alright to not put any additional rivets in beside the affected mis- dimpled hole, but one or two rivets was very acceptable..... building on.