As my first act as a new A&P and the owner of a RV-7 that I didn't build, I decided to move my condition inspection back to December from the original February timeframe to get it done when the temperature inside the hangar was more tolerable. As part of the inspection, I decided to replace the standard aluminum tube flap pushrods with the RV-9 style hexagonal rods. Upon removal of the first pushrod, I was surprised to find that the rod had been touching the fuselage skin and had lost almost 30% of the tube wall material! The wear area was on the forward side of the rod and was not easily seen without removing the rod as the wear area was relatively small and covered by the fuselage skin when the flaps were down. The other side turned out to have exactly the same wear pattern and loss of material. When static, it appeared that there was clearance when the flaps are down but flight loads were obviously closing up that clearance and causing rubbing. Thirty minutes with a file had both holes opened up. I'd like to suggest that everyone, please, please take a close look at your pushrods.