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New guy blunder

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burtj

Member
Hello. I was chugging along on my HS when I realized I left the blue plastic on the inside of the skin (not along the rivet lines at least). The area forward of the front spar is inaccesible. If I drill off HS706 I can get the plastic off, but will need to reattach with blind rivets. Or I could leave the plastic in there as my dirty little secret. Other than calling Van's for the ok on blind rivets, any suggestions? Thanks. Burt
P.S. HS706 is only riveted to the spar, not the skin at this point, so not a big deal to get it off.
 
I'd leave it

If it were my airplane, I'd leave the plastic in place. The only issue I can think of is the possibility of moisture getting trapped between the plastic and the skin, and since it's probably scratch-free (i.e. protected by the plastic), it's protected by the alclad layer.
 
Many builders have reported finding considerable corrosion under the plastic, if the plastic was left in place for a long time prior to removal. I wouldn't feel good leaving it in there.
 
I'm in the finishing stages of my plane after 3 years and last week I removed what was left of the plastic on my VS. I found some surface corrosion under the plastic. I can only imagine how much would be there after many more.

After seeing the corrosion I had you would probably be better off taking the plastic off even if it means having to drill out a bunch of rivets. You could probably get by with removing only the rivets on the bottom then where you cannot buck rivets use blind rivets and no one will ever see them under the HS.
 
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Leave it alone, learn, move on.

Once finished, if you can get access, spray some ACF50 in and you can sleep peacefully at night. Any small amounts of corrosion under the plastic will be very localised and probably a lot, lot less than you would find in the average Cessna or Piper :D
 
Why blind rivets? "Back in the day" we riveted our HS by peeling the skin back and reaching in to buck. And by leaving out the root/nose rib to reach in fwd of the front spar. I don't really see the big deal. Yes, you'd have to drill out rivets and re-rivet some things, but I don't see why you'd need to use blind rivets. Not that using blind rivets is BAD, I'm just saying...

Anyway, I'd want that plastic OUTTA there on my airplane!
 
Thanks for the tips. I was able to get it open and removed. No blind rivets required. Promptly did the same thing on the aft section. AARGH. From now on all plastic comes off First. Burt
 
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