Fuselage skin repair on bulkhead of patch?

Hi Folks,
I have a friend who needs a repair on the left aft skin of an RV6. He purchased a skin (F673 skin aft side) and needs to cut it in. The entire skin replacement is not necessary and much more work as it terminates at the baggage bulkhead.

Would it be better to terminate the cut at a bulkhead or make a patch IAW 43.13-1B just aft of the bulkhead?
thanks for all your help.
Dave

I would say it depends on how large the damage is. If you are talking about hangar rash, a flush patch may be fine. Do you have a picture?

What I think you are saying is that he would remove the damaged portion & splice a new repair panel in, all the way back to the rudder, right?
First call I think should be to Vans for their opinion.

What I would propose to them for the procedure would be:
Jig fuselage solidly
Drill and cut the damaged skin off aft of the bulkhead
Size the replacement panel so it is 1.5" forward of the bulkhead
Position replacement panel so forward edge underlaps old skin & match drill into position including bulkhead rivet locations.
Drill a second row of rivets forward of the bulkhead similar to the luggage bulkhead skin overlap.
You don't mention what station the damage is, which would affect if this type of repair should be considered, if it is the last 2 stations, I'd suggest proposing the splice happen at a bulkhead farther forward, or the whole skin replaced.
In theory this should be as strong as the original skin & would conform to AC43. But in actuality replacing the whole skin isn't that much more work than doing a splice.

But Call Vans...

The damage is between bulkheads F607-F610. (See drawings 22 and 36) We considered terminating on F607 instead of bulkhead F606 where the full sheet F673 terminates.

We spoke w/ Vans a while back and they said they don't make recommendations on this type of work. "Do it IAW 43.13" I think it's a liability thing on their part.

Our reservation taking it to bulkhead F606 is that area is not damaged at all, there is a strobe box located inside and the additional unnecessary disturbance of that bulkhead.

What's the best way to securly jig the tail section during this removal of a large section?

Thanks for all the recommendations.
regards,
Dave

Fuselage I repaired was a splice from 608 back.

I assume 608 & the longerons are not damaged.
Study the luggage bulkhead skin overlap joint and plan to duplicate it on your 607 splice joint. I'd suggest the repair panel extend all the way to the rudder, especially if it is a taildragger. If you decide to splice it at 610, do same as 607.

Fuselage will probably be quite rigid even with panel removed, but I would truss it up before starting work, enough to lock it from twisting and also preserving the vertical reference where the tail rr spar is attached.
-Vertical 2x4 bolted to the 612 bulkhead, braced to prevent twist.
-shimmed & padded saw horse sideways under the rear wing spar area
- 2 2x4s from saw horse back to the vertical 2x4 brace, tight against the floor skin, for supporting the rivet bucker when he climbs into the tail cone.
-wing jacks to prevent airframe movement, twisting.
Be very careful when drilling rivets out, especially the ones along the main longeron. drill #40 bit only deep enough to snap the head off, & center punch the shank out.

Good luck.

- Bulkheads are ok. One of the longerons/ stringers VA117 is bent so will need to R&R w/ Vans new and splice in or bend back? We will know more when we get it off the skin.
- Was using # 44 drill to drill out rivet heads. Some may need oops rivets or may have to go w/ -4 if edge distance is ok.

Thanks again for the jigging advice.
Dave