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Rudder stiffener on wrong side of shear clip

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dmuro2

Member
I finally Pro Sealed the trailing edge and was so focused on getting the aft part of the stiffeners on the correct side that I missed the fact that 3 of the forward parts of the stiffeners were on the wrong side of the shear clips. I couldn’t believe it. I also didn’t notice this until 6 hours after I started the process so the pro seal is curing.

Questions

1. I cleco’d the trailing edge to a piece of angle, and it looks flat and straight. Should I drill out the pop rivets and move the stiffeners to the correct side of the shear clips now, or wait for the pro seal to fully set first?

2. Any tips on drilling out the LP4-3s in such tight quarters? Do you punch out the mandrill or drill away?
 
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dmuro2 said:
I finally Pro Sealed the trailing edge and was so focused on getting the aft part of the stiffeners on the correct side that I missed the fact that 3 of the forward parts of the stiffeners were on the wrong side of the shear clips. I couldn’t believe it. I also didn’t notice this until 6 hours after I started the process so the pro seal is curing.

Questions

1. I cleco’d the trailing edge to a piece of angle, and it looks flat and straight. Should I drill out the pop rivets and move the stiffeners to the correct side of the shear clips now, or wait for the pro seal to fully set first?

I would allow it to fully cure, leaving the rudder skins attached to the angle.

2. Any tips on drilling out the LP4-3s in such tight quarters? Do you punch out the mandrill or drill away?

It's been a while, but I did the same on one of my rudder stiffeners. I used a right angle drill, was careful to align the bit perpendicular to the rivet and drilled without punching the mandrel. Removal of the rivet turned into a non-event for me.
Click to expand...
 
I did the same thing but with one of the LP4’s near the trailing edge. A little cutoff wheel in my dremel was the ticket. Grind the head off with mandrel still in place and pop the backside out. Zero damage and quick.
 
Amazing, thank you both. I have an angle drill, but haven’t used it yet. I’ll give that a shot first, then try the dremel since I’m less comfortable with that in such a tight space. My luck I’d grind through the skin, lol.

I guess I have a couple of days to think about what I’ve done, lol. I’ll fix it next year.
 
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