Hi all-
Dropped my bucking bar while riveting the wing tank the other night and after a few choice words, I came in to search VAF and the internet on dent removal and see if I couldn't learn a new skill. Based on various ideas, I came up with a method that was able to work the two outie dents (on the upper skin of course!) mostly away. Here's what worked:
1. Sharpie cross hairs on your dent.
2. Get a 3 inch length of clear packing tape, fold a corner over on itself (so you can remove when finished), and center over the dent. Do this again (2 layers of tape).
3. Use a spoon and push on a radial from about 1 inch out into the center of the dent. Work in a radial motion, moving about 10 degrees per stroke (ie, after approximately 36 strokes you will have made a complete circuit around the dent).
4. For the big outie, I held a concave dolly (OK, a spoon with a bucking bar under it!) under the skin and hit the outie from the protruding side with a mushroom head (flush set) in the rivet gun. Pressure was set at 20 psi. I was very careful to only get 2-3 hits doing this before returning to step 3. For the smaller outie, no hammering was necessary. I hammered the big outie 4 times with the gun, with 5-10 minutes of spooning between each hammering.
5. Keep repeating step 3 until outie is gone.
I spent about an hour on the big outie and 20 minutes on the smaller one. The big one is still barely perceptible to the touch but I began the experiment spoon to metal and the aluminum is a bit scratched up at the moment. I'm planning to polish the plane, so once I've polished out the scratches, I may keep working on it depending how it looks. With the smaller outie, I used the packing tape from the start and no scratches. The dent is no longer perceptible to the touch, although in reflected light I can see a small wave.
Just thought I'd pass along something that worked for me. Takes time, but it is doable. In my newfound power, I went out and did this on an old outie in my Grumman Yankee and it worked great and did not lift the paint (just be sure not to forget to use the packing tape).
You want pics, I know. Sorry, the camera is on the charger and I didn't feel like waiting to do before and after pics.
Eric
Dropped my bucking bar while riveting the wing tank the other night and after a few choice words, I came in to search VAF and the internet on dent removal and see if I couldn't learn a new skill. Based on various ideas, I came up with a method that was able to work the two outie dents (on the upper skin of course!) mostly away. Here's what worked:
1. Sharpie cross hairs on your dent.
2. Get a 3 inch length of clear packing tape, fold a corner over on itself (so you can remove when finished), and center over the dent. Do this again (2 layers of tape).
3. Use a spoon and push on a radial from about 1 inch out into the center of the dent. Work in a radial motion, moving about 10 degrees per stroke (ie, after approximately 36 strokes you will have made a complete circuit around the dent).
4. For the big outie, I held a concave dolly (OK, a spoon with a bucking bar under it!) under the skin and hit the outie from the protruding side with a mushroom head (flush set) in the rivet gun. Pressure was set at 20 psi. I was very careful to only get 2-3 hits doing this before returning to step 3. For the smaller outie, no hammering was necessary. I hammered the big outie 4 times with the gun, with 5-10 minutes of spooning between each hammering.
5. Keep repeating step 3 until outie is gone.
I spent about an hour on the big outie and 20 minutes on the smaller one. The big one is still barely perceptible to the touch but I began the experiment spoon to metal and the aluminum is a bit scratched up at the moment. I'm planning to polish the plane, so once I've polished out the scratches, I may keep working on it depending how it looks. With the smaller outie, I used the packing tape from the start and no scratches. The dent is no longer perceptible to the touch, although in reflected light I can see a small wave.
Just thought I'd pass along something that worked for me. Takes time, but it is doable. In my newfound power, I went out and did this on an old outie in my Grumman Yankee and it worked great and did not lift the paint (just be sure not to forget to use the packing tape).
You want pics, I know. Sorry, the camera is on the charger and I didn't feel like waiting to do before and after pics.
Eric
Thanks for the tip!!!!
