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Well, I'm going to assume that these wing skins are now toast...

N546RV

N546RV

Well Known Member
So we made the big move from Atlanta to Houston two weekends ago. Spent Saturday loading the truck in ATL. At the very back of the truck, our two motorcycles went in and were tied down. The main wing skins were wrapped in moving pads and placed between the bikes along with some other similarly-shaped items. The leading edge skins were also wrapped in moving pads and placed to the right of J's bike, between it and the air compressor and tool chest. Everything seemed just fine for the drive.

Unfortunately, as I realized upon opening the truck in Houston, your perception of "tied down just fine" becomes skewed at 10 PM, after about ten hours of truck loading. As a result of this skewed perception, J's bike rolled off the center stand and spent probably a large portion of the drive flopping around. It was still tied down enough that it didn't crash around and damage itself, but those wing skins I put on either side got to have footpegs rub against them for 800 road miles. On both sides, the pegs wore holes in the moving pads and then went to town on the skins.

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I could probably sand those out with a ton of elbow grease, but at the cost of removing a fair amount of material thickness...and I don't much like the idea of having that on my wings. Replacement cost from Van's looks to be about $200, not counting shipping. Anyone have any intel on potential shipping costs for these? I figure the leading edge skin makes the shipping job a lot more fun.

It could have been a lot worse, seeing as how my finished horizontal and vertical were on the sides of the truck in the same vicinity as the bikes...:eek:
 
I don't think you'll really know until you remove some of the plastic and try feathering out the scuff.
You never know. Good luck.
Regards.
 
Easy fix!

Where are those spots located in relation to the skin?
Which skin: top, bottom, inner, outer?
Are the spots located facing the ribs or facing the wind?

RV construction can sometimes be very forgiving, and most of those times depends on the location of the error, or fix.

You can probably get away by sanding and forgetting about it, but like mentioned, it depends on where the spots are. Outboard skins receive less stress and loads than inboard skins. Same goes for top/bottom.

Another idea, if still in doubt, would be to fabricate some doublers, just like the wingwalk area.

You will soon see posts saying to give the Mothership a call along with the story and a detail explanation of the issue. I would suggest you start sending them pictures. They'd probably let you out this time, depending on the degree of the felony. Take more pictures, play around with the light and shoot them an email. It wont hurt and you'll be back building in notime.

Besides, it is recommended to sand all Alclad anyway, right?
 
"Generally speaking" 10% is considered the damage limit for parts, that's not much on .032 skins.
 
Ask yourself...

...would you have a tendency, while flying in the future, to feel uneasy if you were to use those skins in construction now? If yes, then replace them. The $$$ you spend now will be cheap insurance for your peace-of-mind later. Keep those skins as part of your trim bundle.
 
I had a damaged longeron from moving. Found someone here who added it to their wing kit order and all I had to do was drive to Austin and pick it up. Would have cost a fortune to ship due to dimension. Might also consider finding a local supplier and going to a single skin wing.
 
How far outboard is the spot? The closer to the wingtip, the less significant, structurally. I once had 'ramp rash' on the leading edge of a wing just inboard of the landing light. It pushed in the leading edge ~2" & popped a couple of rivets on a rib. Van's people said that at that location (so far outboard), to bump out the dent, fill, paint, & fly.

So, depending on location, it might come down to cosmetics.

However, with structural questions, asking Van's staff would make more sense than consulting, in the immortal words of a mortal US Senator, 'a series of tubes.'

Charlie
 
Obviously a call to Van's is in order here; certainly don't take our word for it.

There are sections of the skin that are filed down quite aggressively - the scarf joint between sections, for example, although those are overlapping skins.

As a polisher, I'd guess it's going to be VERY difficult to polish those down to a smooth finish, although it's also very hard to tell with this picture how deep those things actually.

My personal default would be replace the skins, but then again, I have two of everything from my RV-7A building days -- the ones that actually became a plane, and the ones that I tossed in a box because I needed replacements.

Let us know what Van's says.
 
David Paule said:
"Used to do?" Heck, we STILL do it that way.
Click to expand...

You betcha...
Making new skins from scratch is easy when you have a flat template like that. Compare the prices of new stock to Van's plus shipping. Sometimes Van's is cheaper, other times Spruce is cheaper.
 
All is not lost. if you scrap that skin you can use it later for other things.
I scrapped a skin and I have put that old skin to good use.
 
I missed with the deadblow hammer while dimpling one of my wing skins. If I remember the part from Van's was around $65 (2006) which wasn't much more than buying aluminum sheet. Shipping would have cost quite a bit so I just had them ship the new skin with the fuse kit.
 
FredMagare said:
...would you have a tendency, while flying in the future, to feel uneasy if you were to use those skins in construction now? If yes, then replace them. The $$$ you spend now will be cheap insurance for your peace-of-mind later. Keep those skins as part of your trim bundle.
Click to expand...

This is pretty much the decision maker for me. I'm on the fence for now, but long-term it might well bother me. But more importantly, my copilot was quite clear that she would be concerned about the skins.

In the grand scheme of the build, $200 is pocket change for peace of mind. I guess I'll have no shortage of scrap material now...
 
Van's Confirmed 10% Rule

I had some pretty serious surface corrosion spots on my wing skins when I bought a second hand kit. I emailed Vans and they said I could remove up to 10% of the thickness. An hour with scotchbrite, sandpaper and a can of primer and it was fixed. I did check the "deep" spots with a micrometer. Despite my fears, I had only removed 5-6% on the worst spots.

I was lucky enough that the corrosion started under the blue vinyl near the edges so I could easily measure. I can't tell from your pictures if it's near an edge or not.
 
David Z said:
I was lucky enough that the corrosion started under the blue vinyl near the edges so I could easily measure. I can't tell from your pictures if it's near an edge or not.
Click to expand...

It's not...pretty much in the middle of the skins. The pictures aren't really great, but I made this thread as more of a lamentation of my stupidity than a serious inquiry about whether the skins were salvageable.

Your corrosion repair makes me even more convinced that I should get more skins; if you took off 5% with that, I suspect I'd easily approach 10% sanding these out. The scratches are pretty impressively deep.
 
wing skins

You are in Houston?
The big metal guys in Houston have minimum of $80.00 as of last year for me.
And that will give you a whole sheet 4x10 or 12.
You could mix up what grade and thickness you get. They don't care just as long as they get there min payment.
Bill J
 
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