Help me save my HS!

[YellowJacket RV9]

Actually I hope the situation isn't that dire, but I'm looking for some advice about how to proceed after a screw up. While riveting the inboard nose rib-spar-spacer-rib assembly, I royally screwed up a rivet and had to drill out. But thanks to the awkward angle, I ended up drilling it out at an angle, which I didn't notice until I re-riveted, and AGAIN it came out all funky. So now I have a terrible rivet off to one side of an enlarged hole. Needless to say, I've stepped away and practiced my rivet removal technique.

My thinking had been to either

-drill out again, put a reinforcement plate on the elongated side, and re-rivet
-Enlarge the hole to round, and bolt it (but I'm not sure on edge distance, although I don't see much reason to suspect shear forces at this spot), OR,
-Drill and new hole between the middle and bad rivet, and re-rivet there.



I have consulted Van's on this, but no response yet, so thought I'd seek some expert advice here as well. On a better note, aside from this issue and a couple holes waiting for 'oops' rivets to arrive, the HS is done!

[Dbro172]

I do recall rivets in that area being a real pain in the arse. I ended up drilling a couple out to a larger AD-5 size to fix the oblong holes I created when drilling out the first couple tries. One got an AN470-AD5 rivet and the other got a AD5 size cherrymax rivet.

[bruceh]

You can always put a bolt in there!

Every time I've mucked up a rivet like that, it has been because I didn't have the right air pressure on the rivet gun.

[Greg Arehart]

Well, see what Vans says, but I would just look closely at what potential interferences there might be for a larger rivet, and then put a slightly larger rivet (or bolt) in there.

We've all got a few of these sorts of things in our airplane! Fortunately, the design is robust enough to account for (most of) these mishaps.

Cheers,
Greg

[YellowJacket RV9]

Yep I'm thinking a bolt may be the way to go. If you look closely, you can actually see the outline of where the original rivet still sits, so unfortunately it will need to be a pretty big hole. We'll see what Vans says...

I've been doing some research and I will try upping my air pressure next time; I didn't realize that the offset set would require so much more pressure.

Looking at the middle rivet, it is also driven a bit off-center, but I'm wary of drilling it out unless anybody thinks it looks grossly inadequate...

Chris

[Av8torTom]

Chris,

I had the same problem with those rivets. I had to re-do a few times, but finally got it acceptable. I would vote for a Cherrymax rivet and not a bolt. It will be a one and done and you'll never have to worry about it again. My $0.02

Tom

[Vlad]

Chris you are living in RV heaven. Ask a repeat offender to come to your shop and set those stubborn rivets. Offer him lunch. We all had problems in that HS corner at some point.

[Rupester]

...they gave me absolute fits. After I buggered those up several times, I figured out I had to raise the air pressure when setting long AN4 rivets. I went the route of Cherrymax pulled rivets .... as I recall, about the longest ones I could find. Turned out fine. I know others have drilled it out to an AN3 bolt.

[Daniel S.]

This is not a big deal at all... Brace yourself for several mistakes yet to come. Personally, I would go to a bolt quit yet. I'd go ahead and invest in the rivet assotments below. They are a life / time saver to have on hand & you get all the way up to -6 size rivet. Get both a AN470 & A426 set and youll be set for the rest of your build plus no Bolts in rivet holes.

http://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalo...clickkey=14802

[YellowJacket RV9]

Thanks for the reassurance. I went ahead and drilled out the bad rivet today, but was bummed to find out that the hole inside the spar is way out of shape, from where I had drilled into it at an angle.

I am hoping I can still either fit a bolt in their or add a new hole...I am pleased to hear I'm not the only one who has had trouble with this area. Thanks

Chris