drilled out hole

[Maxrate]

Well, It finally happened. As I was using the C-frame today on the right elevator skin the dimple dies were not perfectly aligned with the hole and I punched a hole in the skin. Fortunately it was close enough to the original hole that I was able to drill it oversized with a #30 bit and redimple. These PIC's were the finished product. The 1/8th rivet sets in the hole real nice and you cannot even tell what happened, except for a larger rivet. My concern is that a crack will eventually appear at this hole. Im going to wet rivet all the stiffners with proseal like the rudder trailing edge is done so that will cut down on vibration. Has anyone else run into this situation.

 

[TCONROY]

Your not the first one and won't be the last! I did the same thing only 2 weeks ago with my VS skin. I decided to debur the hole well, enlarge to an AD4 rivet, and use an oops rivet in place of the regular AN326AD3-3.5. The oops rivet has the shank of an AD4 and the head of an AD3. Call Van's and order an ounce. I think about 50 rivets was $0.85.

Build on!

 

[DanH]

You're early in the build, a fine time to set personal craftsmanship standards. Get a new skin.

 

[flion]

I'm between Dan and Trevor on this one. I think, as long as this is the only bad rivet, that you could go with an 'oops' rivet here, especially if you rivet it wet with proseal. However, that hole is not sufficiently dressed to prevent cracking, at least according to the photo. You need to get in there with a rat-tail file and clean it out some more. I see what appears to be a crack on the left in the second photo. The edges of the hole must be Smooth.

 

[Maxrate]

You're early in the build, a fine time to set personal craftsmanship standards. Get a new skin.

Dan,

It was great to wake up to your smiling face this morning telling me to spend more money on my airplane. Thats something my wife would never tell me to do!