[Simon Hitchen]

Just a quickie as im still on the training kit but I find dimpling with the blue film on makes a much neater dimple. Film removed before deburing and riveting of course. Am I likely to run into a problem with this practice??

 

[Red Voodoo]

I'd be concerned about chips from match-drilling being caught between the film and the aluminum. Dimpling would then smash them into the alclad, which can't be good.

 

[BlackRV7]

Just a quickie as im still on the training kit but I find dimpling with the blue film on makes a much neater dimple. Film removed before deburing and riveting of course. Am I likely to run into a problem with this practice??

Just a quick note. I got an email several years ago when I was a "newbee" (so we all were once. We all started spending all that time with a soldering iron, neatly removing small strips of blue film to keep the alum nice and pretty.................guess what!!........before you paint the airplane, you are going to take a scotchbrite pad and rough up the entire airplane. You can not tell anyplace on my airplane, painted or unpainted, where I did or did not remove the film. My opinion, and others (although as always, you get what you pay for, remove the stuff and move one. You have bigger fish to fry.

Dana Overall
RV-7, "Black Magic"

 

[Captain Avgas]

Just a quickie as im still on the training kit but I find dimpling with the blue film on makes a much neater dimple. Film removed before deburing and riveting of course. Am I likely to run into a problem with this practice??

Yes. Look through the archives. This has been raised a number of times before. Also, Vans recommends against it.

 

[jcoloccia]

I too only use the soldering iron for soldering these days. Once I get to the point of dimpling, I tear off the blue junk and never look back.

 

[tomcostanza]

The road less traveled.

I've been trying to minimize the scratches/blemishes on the skins because I want to have a polished aluminum finish. I'm also etching/alodining/priming the interior of the skins. At first I removed the film, dimpled, then realized the etching etchant/alodine/primer would flow through the holes to the outside of the skin. Tried masking tape over the holes, but that didn't work. Next I tried leaving the film on, etching/alodining/priming, then dimpling. But the primer would slough off near the dimple. Still no good! Now I leave the film on, dimple, etch/alodine/prime, and finally remove the film. I'm happy with the results. As mentioned, you can get burrs stuck to the film. If that happens, either remove the burrs somehow, or remove the film (the burrs will come off with the film).

Good luck.
Tom
Fuse 7A

 

[Simon Hitchen]

thanx guys, good advice. I was concerned about the faint circle that the mail die left around the dimple but as you say it will all be primed, sanded and painted, these marks are not going to be visible. As with all projects of this magnitude it takes a while to fully appreciate what is important/critical, and what is just too picky.

 

[jcoloccia]

Just FYI: The circle is perfectly normal. It's a by-product of the "spring back" dimple dies (the faces are slightly tapered to give a better dimlpe). I called Avery about that after my first round of dimpling and they explained it to me.

edit: After I posted I realized how many manufacturers/businesses/people I've talked to for advice and explanations since I started building my -7. It's amazing the level of service I've gotten from just about everyone I've dealt with so far. Of course, now that I'm starting to think about things like fuel senders and avionics, suddenly all of my phone calls and e-mails are going unanswered from certain vendors , however Stein/B&C/Bob Nuckolls/Avery/Cleveland/Advance Finishing Systems/Aircraft Spruce/Aersport Power/Mattituck, just to name a few, are all first class operations with first class service and can take my money anyday . This is on top of the list of folks that I haven't dealt with yet that have similar "reviews" from those who have. We're very lucky....

 

[DGlaeser]

Blue film

My reason for spending the time with the soldering iron and leaving most of the blue film in place is for glare control I removed the film from the stabilizer when I first started building and on sunny days I had to keep it covered so I wasn't constantly blinded by the reflections. So from then on (and I just 'rolled my canoe' last night ) I've left it on only for that reason.

Dennis Glaeser
7A

 

[wingtime]

Surface corrosion

I'm still doing the solder iron errr gun trick for the outside of the skins. Reason being? I'm not worried about scratches. It's the humid air here in FL that seems to cause a dull haze to form on th skins rather quickly. To protect the exposed areas I spray on a light coat of primer before riveting. Of course I'm priming all the interior parts but we won't go there.