What's new
Van's Air Force

Don't miss anything! Register now for full access to the definitive RV support community.

Fix it or leave it.

Champ

Champ

Well Known Member
I'm prepping for paint. How anal do I have to be about the partial halo rings left by dimpling. Will they show after paint? Should they be sanded out?

And, the second last bulkhead has drawn the skin down on some rivets. Should have put in some shims. Did see on an old Kevin Horton post that he tapped these up from the inside. Are these recesses pretty common? Should they be tapped out?

Not building a show plane but do want it to look good.
 
Last edited:
Champ said:
I'm prepping for paint. How anal do I have to be about the partial halo rings left by dimpling. Will they show after paint? Should they be sanded out?

And, the second last bulkhead has drawn the skin down on some rivets. Should have put in some shims. Did see on an old Kevin Horron post that he tapped these up from the inside. Are these recesses pretty common? Should they be tapped out?

Not building a show plane but do want it to look good.
Click to expand...

this is the slippery slope when owners paint their planes. many decisions to make. the paint shop has already made the decision of their work level and they stick to it. I think owner/painters need to do the same. early on, set an acceptable level of work quality you are willing to do and then try to hold to that. you could paint a couple panels with defects to calibrate yourself. if you begin feeling painting OCD is getting it's grip on you, seek therapy.
 
Last edited:
Champ said:
And, the second last bulkhead has drawn the skin down on some rivets. Should have put in some shims. Did see on an old Kevin Horton post that he tapped these up from the inside. Are these recesses pretty common? Should they be tapped out?

Not building a show plane but do want it to look good.
Click to expand...
Until a few months ago I was building a -7. I liked the idea of a polished plane but thought it was out of the question because of some "pulling in" that I thought looked pretty horrible. In reality were talking about tiny deviations in the flatness of the surface, but they seem to look bad when you're being obsessive about it looking perfect.

So, when I was in Oshkosh last year I paid particular attention to polished planes. Funny thing, even on the really great looking ones, I saw pretty much the exact same "defects" that I was worried about on mine. I did see one that didn't have the skin pulled in in one place (fwd skin stiffeners meeting up to the F-704 bulkhead), and the builder said he'd shimmed it. I would never have noticed it on any of them if I weren't specifically looking to see how they had handled a spot where I felt there was a problem. I'd certainly never noticed it on anyone else's plane until I built that part of my own plane!

What I thought would look horrible was noticeable only if you looked for it. The airplanes aren't perfectly smooth to begin with, and you can "see" where the underlying structure is by the rivet lines, so a little bit of irregularity doesn't seem to stand out a lot. I came home having decided to try polishing (and then sold the project, but that's another topic).
 
Results

I tapped out the pulled in rivets on the F-809 bulkhead (only spot this was a problem) as I was in the aft fuselage anyway to get a wrench on the slider canopy rail nuts. I polished the rail so it was easier to remove it to paint the fuselage than to mask it off. Hard part was getting in & out of the aft fuselage, especially with the rear battery installation. One of the few times I'm glad not to be a big guy. Not perfect but much better.

On the dimple halos. I'll do the normal sanding for paint but won't get anal about their complete removal.

Thanks guys.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top