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  #11  
Old 02-05-2008, 07:47 PM
txnbuilder txnbuilder is offline
 
Join Date: Sep 2006
Posts: 66
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Quote:
Originally Posted by HEGASIS View Post
Shoot an A rivet in there. A's are like butter. If you drill out the damaged area ck for a 1097, shoot a 426 and sand it with a red scotch bright disc then blue when you get close to the skin and work it in 90 deg alternating patters to shine up the rivet you will never see it and it will literally hold for 100 years. I would worry about the filler holding across a hole without a doubler behind it.
Mark,

Thanks for the suggestion, but I need some education here. What do you mean by 'drill out the damaged area ck for a 1097?..' I assume this means drill out the crack and dimple to fit a 1097 rivet?

I've never used an 'A' rivet before, but I'm going to definitely going to try it out!

Sorry for wanting things absolutely spelled out, but I like the sound of 'will never see it and hold for 100 years'
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  #12  
Old 02-05-2008, 07:49 PM
txnbuilder txnbuilder is offline
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by HEGASIS View Post
Shoot an A rivet in there. A's are like butter. If you drill out the damaged area ck for a 1097, shoot a 426 and sand it with a red scotch bright disc .....

Ahh... ck = countersink... (to avoid dimpling the skin back....)

I like it....
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  #13  
Old 02-06-2008, 05:37 PM
HEGASIS HEGASIS is offline
 
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Exactly. If you've never shot an A before I would suggest you try it on some scrap, you can then get a feel for the scotch wheels on the rivet and perfect you're technique. You'll be shocked at just how easy it is to set these rivets. Remember these are not structural rivets so don't use them in places they were not meant to be in. It should be a pretty simple and cheap fix... NOW GET BACK TO BUILDING!
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RV-8....slow build
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Last edited by HEGASIS : 02-06-2008 at 05:52 PM.
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  #14  
Old 02-07-2008, 06:14 AM
cwreeves cwreeves is offline
 
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Tucson, AZ
Posts: 76
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If it were me, I'd drill it out, deburr, dimple and drive a solid 426 rivet. If you don't have one already you can buy a dimple dies used with pop rivet tool. Then use Aero-Poxy light weight filler or epoxy/micro balloons to make it pretty.
Charlie, RV-7, Tucson AZ
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  #15  
Old 02-12-2008, 09:12 PM
txnbuilder txnbuilder is offline
 
Join Date: Sep 2006
Posts: 66
Default Dent Fixed!

Thanks to everyone who posted their suggestions on how to fix this. I ended up [mostly] following Mark's advice. I am VERY pleased with the results. I figured I'm not the first or the last to run into this problem, so I thought I'd post a step-by-step description of what I did for future reference.

First I ordered some AN426A-4-3 rivets from Aircraft Spruce. Actually, I ordered about 397 more rivets than I needed (hey, they won't sell me less than 1/8 of a pound!). Even so, this was my first time putting in a $2 order, and was pleasantly surprised they sent it to me via USPS and charged me only something like $2.50 for shipping.

With the rivets on hand, I took a piece of scrap aluminum, set it between two blocks of wood, and dropped my bucking bar on it (hey -- I had to do a practice run first, right?!).

I went through all the steps on the scrap piece, and since I liked the results, decided to try it on the wing...

So, this is what I started with....a right leading edge with a small but nasty ding/crack near the tip...


I got some 120 grit sandpaper and a small piece of 2x4, and made me a sanding block. I sanded off the tip of the ding, which made it a lot easier to drill it from the outside (drilling from the inside would have been a bit challenging because of the angle at which the drill would have to be in order to be perpendicular to the skin).


Then I put a hole in the middle of the crack. I started with a #40 drill and then final drilled to #30. This completely removed the crack.


After deburring the hole, I used a 'pop-rivet dimple die' to dimple the hole. I decided to dimple and not countersink for a couple of reasons. First, the hole completely got rid of the crack and *most* of the dent, and I would rather not remove more material than necessary. This is one of the reasons why I definitely agreed with Mark about practicing on a piece of scrap first.


With the dimpled hole, I put the rivet in, put some masking tape on it to hold it in place, and set it with the rivet gun. I set the air pressure on the gun to 20psi and only had to give it a few hits before the rivet was fully set. Now I REALLY know why they call these 'soft' rivets!

***Very important*** Do NOT drop bucking bar while fixing dropped bucking bar dent!!!!!


Finally, I used first a red and then a blue scotch-brite disc to make things look pretty.




So there you have it...

Mark, thanks again for the advice!
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Austin, TX
RV7A - Flying!
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  #16  
Old 02-12-2008, 10:37 PM
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AX-O AX-O is offline
 
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Nice job and very simple solution.
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