Should I use this skin or not?

[Resolved] Should I use this skin or not?

While match drilling my rudder stiffeners to the skin, I encountered this hole pattern:



Clearly the prepunched hole at the 7" mark is about 1/8" out of alignment. Needless to say, the prepunched hole in the stiffener does not match. I spoke with a tech counselor at Van's, and their suggestion was to abandon the hole and drill new holes on eather side of the bad one. Later I can cover the bad hole with proseal.

Structurally that approach is sound. However, I wanted to put this out to you all to gague whether I should do as the tech counselor suggested, or push the matter and request a new skin from Van's. Clearly the mistake was made by Van's so I don't think I should have to pay for a new skin, especially since I'm within my 30 day window. I checked all of the other stiffener runs and this is the only misaligned hole I found.

What do you all think? Is this even going to be visible after paint?

I'd say go with the tech counselor..maybe even drill a hole on both sides of extra hold and then with the extra hole you could even dimple it too and put a rivet in it assuming it would be out of the way of the stiffner.

miyu1975 said:

with the extra hole you could even dimple it too and put a rivet in it assuming it would be out of the way of the stiffner.

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I thought of that, but the hole is only 1/8" away from where it should be, so I'd end up with two holes in my stiffener that are right on top of each other. If the mistake hole was further away I'd probably just throw a rivet in there and then match drill a new hole in the skin.

What about a little Pro-Seal on the stiffener?

Just a thought but it looks like the stiffener would cover the hole anyway so a little filler fixes the paint job. If you pro-seal or SIKA glue from a rivet or two on either side, there is no way it's going to flex. If we can glue a canopy on, I would think a little bit here would be more than enough.

Just a thought?

Bill S
7a finishing

BillSchlatterer said:

Just a thought but it looks like the stiffener would cover the hole anyway so a little filler fixes the paint job. If you pro-seal or SIKA glue from a rivet or two on either side, there is no way it's going to flex. If we can glue a canopy on, I would think a little bit here would be more than enough.

Click to expand...

Yup, that's the plan if I keep this skin. I'm just trying to gague whether or not I'm being too anal if I ask for a replacement skin. So far it sounds like a rivet on either side with a little filler in the bad hole isn't going to be noticeable after paint.

BillSchlatterer said:

If you pro-seal or SIKA glue from a rivet or two on either side, there is no way it's going to flex. If we can glue a canopy on, I would think a little bit here would be more than enough.

Click to expand...

Oh, I see what you're saying. Don't bother riveting on either side. Just use some proseal or glue to hold the stiffener in place, just for that one spot. That's not a bad thought. It would save me from having two more out of place rivets.

If that's the only problem with the skin, I'd keep it and drill the extra holes.

I would look closely at the skin for any other problems, however.

John

another option...

You could make a new stiffener and then match drill it to the holes in the skin.

Check....

Steve,

Check your E-mail....

Thanks for the suggestions everybody. Joe from Van's took a look at the picture and is sending me a replacement skin. Thank you very much, Joe!