A friend was looking at my fuselage build today. When I showed him a slight oil canning (lower front of fuselage side skin immediately aft of F-01406 bulkhead) he suggested it may be possible to shrink the skin locally as a fix. He said he has experience in heat-treating steel auto body parts to remove dents, but hasn't tried aluminum. His approach, at least, is pretty conservative, as he recommended using a hair dryer instead of a heat gun (or a torch) to avoid overheating the material.
I looked online a bit and found some references on auto body blog sites, one stating that you would not change the temper or hardness of the aluminum if you don't heat it past 550 F. Basically it seems you heat the site then cool it with a rag soaked in cold water.
Has anyone tried this? I'm not trying to start a debate or sound too uninformed, but it does feel like using a hair dryer and cold water on the fuselage at least should not cause too much havoc.
I maybe should mention that this is not a "hard" oil can, i.e., it doesn't snap back and forth - it assumes its proper, slightly convex shape with very little finger pressure from inside, but prefers to rest slightly concave (about 3/32" gap with a straight edge held vertically).
It may also be relevant that this method seems mostly used for automobile dent repair by helping to return the stretched-out material to its original thickness. Here it would seem to be an attempt to thicken the skin beyond its original thickness.
I looked online a bit and found some references on auto body blog sites, one stating that you would not change the temper or hardness of the aluminum if you don't heat it past 550 F. Basically it seems you heat the site then cool it with a rag soaked in cold water.
Has anyone tried this? I'm not trying to start a debate or sound too uninformed, but it does feel like using a hair dryer and cold water on the fuselage at least should not cause too much havoc.
I maybe should mention that this is not a "hard" oil can, i.e., it doesn't snap back and forth - it assumes its proper, slightly convex shape with very little finger pressure from inside, but prefers to rest slightly concave (about 3/32" gap with a straight edge held vertically).
It may also be relevant that this method seems mostly used for automobile dent repair by helping to return the stretched-out material to its original thickness. Here it would seem to be an attempt to thicken the skin beyond its original thickness.