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Top skin edge...roll it?

ColoRv

ColoRv

Well Known Member
I may have painted myself into a bit of a corner here. I'm getting ready to put the forward top skin on and it looks a bit odd to me. I checked a buddies flying -8 and bit doesn't look like his edge has been rolled at all, but it lays nice and flat. Mine, with clecos only, looks like this:

1EE06FC8-C1E3-45C9-BA7F-3ECA1B0212FB-10967-0000063329042685_zpsd68d4316.jpg


The question is, will rivets pull that down tight or should I roll the edge to make it lay flat once riveted. Rolling the edge after having dimpled it may be one heck of a trick. I am considering bending the edge outboard of the dimples with a hand seamer, maybe bend it where it contacts the fuselage side....but thought I would ask the 'been there, done that' crowd for your thoughts before I do something I may regret. How did you guys handle this area?
 
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Bill,
This skin is no different than the rear turtle deck skins in that it will lay fine after riveting.
It always looks bad with just clecoes but after hitting it with the rivet gun it pulls down nicely. I move the angle of the gun down as I finish the rivet to help with this. I just finished mine and they lay pefect no chance of getting a piece of paper in there.
 
If you have them, use a wing-nut cleco to cinch the edges down as you rivet, or you'll just have to press down harder with your rivet set when you do the riveting. I have a bunch of the wing nut clecos and they've some in handy many times over the years.
 
I rolled mine, it made it easier to rivet. If you have already dimpled, I would not do anything to that edge, it will not come out very well, for sure not the hand seamer. Get some clecos mentioned above, then rivet and it will come out just fine.

Bird
 
As other posters have said, it will come out fine just the way it is.
I did take a file to the top skin edge just to take the corner off before
riveting.
 
Top skin

For those that rolled, how did you do it? I have a roll available but it isn't going to roll all the way to the edge shown, which seems like the most important portion to roll.
 
I have had good luck "rolling" an edge after I dimpled it by placing a long piece of angle on the floor, then butting the edge of the dimples up against the corner of the angle. Then I took a piece of hard plastic and rubbed the top on the skin. Hopefully I explained that correctly.
 
:confused:
RV7AJeremy said:
I have had good luck "rolling" an edge after I dimpled it by placing a long piece of angle on the floor, then butting the edge of the dimples up against the corner of the angle. Then I took a piece of hard plastic and rubbed the top on the skin. Hopefully I explained that correctly.
Click to expand...

Nope.
 
Undimple?

Wish this thread had come up 2 months ago. I had the same issue. I flattened the dimples, rolled and re-dimpled. Came out ok though. :D
 
Roll

I write with a black Sharpie in BIG letters instructions on the sheetmetal parts , such as " Roll Here " , this side out , rivet size call out , Leave Open etc..
Helps to transfer the info on the plans directly to the parts .
Tom
 
I rolled the edge after dimpling. I used that round aluminum thing with the 2 nylon rollers, and I carefully and lightly rolled between each dimple, and slightly outboard over them. It worked OK, though I wish I had dimpled it after rolling.
 
Rolling

Are we talking about rolling the edge, rolling the skin in a slip roll, or both?

I thought the suggestion of rolling was referring to rolling the sheet in a slip roll.
 
DaAV8R said:
Are we talking about rolling the edge, rolling the skin in a slip roll, or both?

I thought the suggestion of rolling was referring to rolling the sheet in a slip roll.
Click to expand...


Just edge rolling the sheetmetal . If I had a slip-roll in my shop I would use it on this piece , not realy necessary but would be nice .
It also helps to cleco the left side first and work the curve over to the baggage door side .
Tom
 
We rolled our edges with a hand made tool. Turned out really nice everywhere. Even did some rolling after dimpling, just had to be more careful. I do believe that riveting will make everything sit down nicely though.
 
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