Bent Skin Disease

[Janekom]

Bent Skin Disease - Help please

Our recently completed 7A has picked up "Bent Skin Disease".
I am sure that you have seen this before. Someone stepped on the flap, the top curved skin of the flap hooks over the inboard wing skin.
Being on the RH side the pilot did not notice it and when retracting the flaps this happened.

My idea was to remove the flap, cover the bent part with tape, hold a smooth block underneath and slowly (with pressure set low) hit it with the pneumatic rivet gun all along the bent.

Please let us have your expert advise.

 

[cwreeves]

Bent Skin

Jan,
I've done a fair amount of body work and trying to staighten aluminum is a real pain especially where you have creases. The aluminum is so soft, working it with tools leaves marks even with tape over it. The toughest part I see from your picture its the section where the skins over lap. In order to get to this you'd have to drill out the rivets, lift the skin to access then reverse the crease. You could straighten but you'd never be happy with the results. I'd use micro balloons and epoxy to fill any rough or low areas. It feathers nicely.
Charlie, RV-7, N352CR

 

[Dave Cole]

Don't hit it with a rivet gun...

I've tried that on skins before, and it only made things worse. And impossible to make right again.

 

[danielhv]

ouch, man that sucks... That's one thing I'd be REALLY paranoid about... somebody stepping on something while I'm not looking, or even something like clothes getting hung on the skin that meets at the back edge of the canopy. I feel for ya man, just being complete and now its back to the drawing board... Let us know how you fix it man!

 

[Janekom]

Thanks so far for the "not so promising" advise guys. Looking at it again I was wondering if one should not cut off the bent piece and then rivet a small new piece on. Look carefully and you will see that the bend is just behind but close to the rivet line. It can be chamfered front and right to make is less visible?

 

[RV8N]

I would try using a sheet metal seamer. Clamp it right at the crease and flex the skin down. There will be a lot of spring-back so you'll have to bend it pretty far. Might crack the paint...

Karl

Now in Sandpoint, ID.

 

[rv72004]

If it were me I would bite the bullet and replace the skin.

 

[cytoxin]

find somone that is a master metal guy/gal and let them fix it. the right person can fix that and not even use paint. paintless dent repair guys come to mind. they can massage aluminum back to dent free if they can get a structure to work against or pry from. watched them remove large dents from aluminum cadillac hoods. to a perfect finish...if the car can be fixed w/o paint no damaged has to be disclosed. so guess what ...people have mastered this technique in USA from the hail storm damage.. maybe someone can give it a go before more drastic measures are taken.

 

[Janekom]

We finally had time to fix it. The lesson learned is that we could not bent it back without seriously stretching it. After an hour we gave up and proceeded with plan B.

We had to "drop" both the aileron and flap in order to get in there. Then we have cut out a piece and put in a new piece underneath. After match drilling it through the skin, we riveted it in place and painted it. This took us about two hours including the wait in between coats of paint. There is one small area where we just could not get the slight bend out.

Thanks for all the advise.

 

[danielhv]

Looks good man, glad you got her fixed!! If you ever wanted to hide that seam, you could always go back and glass over it... Now go FLY!!!!