Unfortunate mistake

[dmaib]

I had an accident this afternoon when one of my RV-10 QB wings slipped off the cradle. The inboard leading edge has been dented and the inboard end of the fuel tank is slightly deformed. I sent pics to Vans tech support and hope to hear from them Monday. I am looking for any advice that will help me gracefully recover from this (completely preventable ) goof.

[newtech]

Find you a body man that is at least 60 years old and he will be able to hammer that out so well that you will never notice it once it is painted. If you ever hit a bird you are going to have to do it all over again.

Steve Eberhart
RV-7A almost ready for finishing kit.

[painless]

Consider this....You got your first flight test in!

I am sure that others will chime in with other ideas, but I will submit my two cents worth.

My first concern would be if the fuel tank integrity has been compromised. I would do a leak test on that tank.

If all is well in that regard, you can focus on the sheet metal repair. From what I can see, is most of the tank skin damage on the bottom of the tank?

Can you gain access to the dented area through the tank access hole? Would you be able to tap the dent back out through the access hole?

If not, I wonder if you could drill a strategic hole in the area where you have the wrinkle in the skin, use a dent puller there, and then apply some sort of patch with a small piece of aluminum and sealed pulled rivets and proseal. It being on the bottom surface, one would have to be looking for it to see it. Also consider that the wing fairing might cover some of the patch.

You can fill in any low spots with super-fil to get a nice contour again. From what I see in the picture, I am not too concerned with the tank rib damage, provided your tank does not leak.

Worst case scenario would be for Van's to send you a new tank. With all the matched drilling going on these days, are they making the tanks interchangable???

Good luck to you. Let us know what the outcome is.

Regards,

[dmaib]

Thanks guys! My blood pressure is starting to go down a bit!

I do happen to know a 60+ auto body man! Here are a couple of more images.

[img=http://img174.imageshack.us/img174/424/img0839vo2.th.jpg]

[img=http://img150.imageshack.us/img150/3646/img0836lw9.th.jpg]

[AntiGravity]

David this was indeed a timely post and you have prompted me to do something that I've been meaning to get around to for a while.

I have now secured my wing in the cradle so this shouldn't happen to me.

http://www.mykitlog.com/users/displa...og=20201&row=1


Thanks for the heads up, and I sincerely hope you get this sorted out without too much trouble; I can only imagine the colour of the air that would emminate from my workshop if that had happened to me...

Cheers,

[az_gila]

David....

Worst case looks like you could remove the end rib, smooth out the aluminum, and rivet a new rib in with ProSeal.

The rib flange does face outwards, correct?

Messy but easily doable, and a full strength repair, if the aluminum sheet is not creased, just bent...

Your 60 year old body man will be able to do a much better job with the rib removed....

gil in Tucson

[dmaib]

Jeff, I can assure you the air was "blue" for a few moments this afternoon in my hangar.

It has been my intent to secure the wings to the cradle since I first got them, but since I was not working on them......................lesson learned the hard way!

I will apply your elegant fix tomorrow.

Thanks.

[RV7Guy]

I had a very similar incident happen as my wings were set up for painting. We had pulled the tanks loose for painting and when the wing was rotated too far the tank slipped off and a very similar dent occurred. Mine actually had a pretty sharp dent. This happened at the body shop so my friend got out some of this body tools and 3 minutes later nobody could ever tell. A little filler was needed on one spot.

Not a big deal. Have the body dude fix and move on!!!

[cytoxin]

that looks somewhat like an easy fix i doubt you need to remove the rib. let the body man see if he can fix it first then if necessary remove the rib but i doubt you will. good luck.
hate it for ya man, that stings

[dmaib]

Thanks to everybody for the advice. This does not look like it is going to be a huge job to repair. I sure love having these forums for help.
(My wings are now secured to the cradle!)