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Elevator dent...fixable or scrap pile?

CMBAero

Member
Hi,

Sooo I was working on riveting the left elevator spar to the skin... and everything was going kinda well up until I runned off my back riveting plate and indented a nice big dent on top of my elevator skin...
Now my question is... is this fixable or do I scrap it all and start from the beginning?
The way it looks is, I have a straight indentation where the riveting plate ended, and that rivet locations pops out of the skin...

I gotta say, I am working everyday on planes everyday and I've never encoutered something as frustrating as riveting these RV9 elevator skins without either denting them or crease magically appearing somewhere... I don't know how y'all can build them so easily...
This pre-bent design gets so frustrating to work with... :/

There must be something I am doing wrong somewhere with these!?

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Thanks for your input...
 
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Depends on your personal preferences. If it will bother you down the road, redo the part. It can be filled and painted. And especially if it's on the bottom of the elevator, you'll never notice it.

Yes, I have some *er* odd spots on my airplane, as do most other builders.

Greg
 
What kind of filler is recommended for this aluminium?
Yah on the bottom I would not bother replacing it, but it's on top... :(

I think I will try to fill it and sand, if it disappears, I will finish it...

Thanks!
 
I've never encoutered something as frustrating as riveting these RV9 elevator skins without either denting them or crease magically appearing somewhere....

LOL This is normal I suppose. As for the multiple asterisks, I suppose they have more flying time around my hangar that my airplane or I ever will. I have a few uglies on my airframe too. Learning to repair versus replace early on in the project would have saved me a bunch of money and time (not having to wait for shipment, prep and priming, etc.) By the time I got to the last 95% of my project (that's right after I finished the first 95%) I had already learned to salvage and repair my boo boo's if at all possible without compromising safety. By then my wallet was wheezing pretty badly so that helped my decision making as well.

If you have an EAA Tech Advisor or RV builder handy, get them to take a look. May help reinforce whatever decision you make.
 
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It's hard to see exactly what's happened there... Can you take a photo looking at it from the front of the elevator? If the dent isn't too deep, maybe you can put that flat section on your back riveting plate and give it a few light taps from the inside to flatten it out a bit? A flat hammer or even the flat rivet set with pressure turned down on the compressor should give some nice light taps...
 
Respectfully, build on, no matter what you decide to do.

But DON'T DECIDE NOW. Decide now, you'll overreact. Like other posters, I went for perfection and replaced a lot of cosmetic things, like this appears to be. Now, it's check for real structural issues and tag it for clean up or don't and ignore it. Either way, finishing this one up is practice if you decide to scrap it. Better find the rest of the hard parts on a scrap piece. I have a now recycled scrap left aileron that became my rivet gun (and rivet gunner) check part after I dove headlong into the assembly after not touching the project for a year. The skills had eroded. :( That part, while scrap. was not wasted in the end.

I've long thought somebody could make a little business of parting out abandoned emp kits, fixing the minors and selling the parts to folks who have the one ding, hate it, but are loathe to start the part over.

Rick 90432
 
What happened is that I slipped of my backriveting plate while riveting the rivets to the spar... so when I went ahead to rivet, it hammered just the skin into the side of the backriveting plate...

So this rivet hole pops out a little from the other ones and the backriveting plate dented the skin inside on a straight line!
 
But DON'T DECIDE NOW. Decide now, you'll overreact. Like other posters, I went for perfection and replaced a lot of cosmetic things, like this appears to be. Now, it's check for real structural issues and tag it for clean up or don't and ignore it.

Thanks Rick!

I haven't touched it since this morning when it happened and I am already calming down from this stupid mistake...

Lookin at it now, I might try some filler later on and see how it looks...
But my fuselage kit is gonna be shipped pretty soon, so if and elevator skin fits in the crate, I might as well throw one in with a new set of stiffeners and fix it right before closing all up this one...
 
Leave it for now.

Before you hang the engine, you'll have a half-dozen of these. Some you'll fix, some you'll let the painter fix. Now is not the time for panic, just mark it for future evaluation after you've learned more about the building process, and re-evaluate it before first flight.

For now, build on.
 
I did the same thing while riveting rudder stiffeners, but the skin cracked where the backrivet set hit it. .016 is even more delicate. I scrapped mine and made a new one.

If the rivet hole is deformed at all, it will be a great place for a future crack to grow. A piece remade is not wasted-it's just more practice.
 
This story goes back 20-30 years, but a local Cessna Dealer called to order a new 310 and wanted it bare aluminum. After some conversation with the shop, the Cessna Rep called the dealer back and informed him that a bare skinned 310 will run about 12k more for obvious reasons. I doubt that your little booger would cause a big problem at Cessna.
 
Little update...more pics!

Thanks for all the replies...

As requested, here are some new pictures of the damage... I tried my best, but I think they are good enough so that you can see that the affected area had the rivet location pops out a little and then beside the dent from the back rivet plate...

So the best that can be achieved with filler is hide the dent but the rivet location siting higher will stay...

Please give me your advice on this situation..? Structurally safe or not?

I already got the confirmation from Van's that a new skin do fit in my fuselage crate that is leaving soon... It will probably be my choice right now because I might not build a perfect plane, but at least, I'll try to get as close as possible...

Question is, I will drill out all the rivets than go on the spar, so that I can re-use my spar, but...
Are the holes on the pre-punched Elevator skin consistent enough so that I only need to replace the stringers that are riveted on the skin and use the bottom ones that I have not riveted yet for the new skin?


Thanks!


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