Replace rivets, or build on?

So in match drilling the skins on the wings, I didn't pay attention to my drill depth resulting in the drill scrapping/marring the factory head of the rivets that attach the doubler W-707D and W-707G to the rear spar.

Thoughts? Do I replace all three or just the one worst offender? Being that this is through some pretty thick material....Its a risky removal job.

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Kh3faqQPCHA/VpwpfflejwI/AAAAAAAABqE/YxjvFz70TQI/s1600/IMG_7341.JPG

My 2 cents, which I borrowed say build on.

Build on

ty1295 said:

My 2 cents, which I borrowed say build on.

Click to expand...

Same price. $.02
Ask Vans to be certain. My guess is they will tell you to buff out the scratches, buy a drill stop and build on.

I'd do what Wirejock describes too and buff out the sharp edges. You'll likely just do more damage trying to drill them out.

Everything's good, build on

I'll third what Larry and Carlos said. You'll drive yourself crazy if you worry about every little scratch. If you ever get to Oshkosh you'll see hundreds of planes with lots of scratches, dings & dents and they have been flying safely for thousands of hours. One thing I have learned in building my own plane is that your build standards will rise to the point that you almost become paranoid that a scratch will develope into a crack or maybe a slightly over torqued bolt will snap. These RV's are built like trucks compared to a lot of homebuilts. Build on. If you have any concerns, Vans is a phone call away and they should be the final say if repairs are needed.

Thanks Guys

Yeah...One could worry quite a bit (I did that the whole empennage). I suppose the education portion is really is the journey to figure out whats acceptable and whats not. That's why Van's Airforce is great to bounce things/ideas around. Taking a second look at it....it's not as bad as the picture makes it look. The coloring is just rubbed off the two and the one that looks bad doesn't catch my fingernail.

I still remember a call to Van's once resulted with the kind reminder of "You're building an aluminum box in your garage with a drill and a hammer. How perfect do you need it to be" LOL....Made me chuckle a bit

I'll call Van's in the morning and double check, but at least I won't lose sleep tonight!

Thanks guys.

I'll stray from the group on this one. The bottom two I wouldn't worry about if you can't feel the mark, the top one I would consider drilling out carefully. Also, the top rivet (shop head) looks either under driven or driven off center, hard to tell but it doesn't look right to me. Let us know what vans says. And I second the stop drill; I love those things

Happy building!

I'll stand in the "build on" line.

I would call the mother ship, and I'm with Jeremy; replace the top one. The gouge on the top rivet looks deep and sharp. Polishing would only remove more material. It would be very difficult to measure, but I would like to know what percentage of depth the gouge is to the total rivet head height?

I wouldn't worry about it. You would even risk more damage trying to "buff out" the gouges/scratches on the rivets. The typical failure mode of a rivet, whether it be in shear or tension, is for the shank to separate from the head. A gouge on the factory head of the rivet would have to be very deep to affect its strength.

Rivets are not made with minimal material. Its not gonna split, crack or vibrate itself to death. Especially 470s.

But there is nothing better than empirical evidence vs someones long distance opinion. Make up a scrap section, put in one rivet and screw it up (ie smile it) bad then try to tear it apart. Its an eye opener. Then do two rivets. Then do it with a cherry max and a pop rivet just for giggles. Another eye opener.

Even more fun is take two scraps and T-88 a 1" square patch and try to tear them apart.

Build on.

Vans says not an issue

Called vans and they took a look at the rivet. They were not concerned at all. From what he saw, that particular rivet in question is in a state of sheer stress and that the heads are there only to ensure the rivet shank stays in place. He felt it was better to leave it as-is than risk messing with it.

I appreciate everyone's input. Wirejock...I will order those drill stops

JV7AJeremy...I know what you are saying about that top shop head. I started to squeeze that rivet and it started to slump on me so I stopped and drilled it out. (Very easy to get a rivet out that has not been fully squeezed yet...learned that one quickly). So that's why you see some of the primer removed on the one side. The new rivet was set properly I assure you.

Also...The paralax of an iphone camera at an inch above the object makes things look quite screwy too