Missed dimple on VS skin

Posted also in my building project

First boo-boo...

Well, it had to happen... And I'm sure it won't be the last...

While dimpling the VS skin, I must of slipped just a hair while the handle was going down. Don't know how that could happen as I always make sure the die is engaged before pressing down.

Anyway, it happened, and now one hole was dimpled just on it's edge.
I thought (or maybe not thinking, depends on how you see it ), of enlarging the hole to number 4 size rivet since it was so close. Dimpled it to the new size but it's ugly I believe.

I'm thinking now if I should order a new skin, if a new one can be match drilled to the original spars and ribs.

Or drilling cleanly that hole to prevent cracking of the skin and leave it without a rivet.
Or as above and putting one or two rivets just above/below that hole.

Here are photos for the experts here...
Waiting for your precious advice !!!





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There may be a RV built without an OOPS rivet, but I doubt it. Drill out the hole to #30 and leave the dimple alone. Put in a rivet with a 1/8" shank and 3/32 head.

http://www.averytools.com/prodinfo.asp?number=1097K

Avialable from several other sources. I would recommend the NAS 1097 rivets for installing nutplates, especially those that use a 3/32 rivet in thin material. You can countersink .016 enough to avoid having to dimple a steel nutplate. Vans approves their use for all nutplates, and I have a selection of -3, -3.5 and -4. I sometimes countersink using the manual deburrer, just about 5-6 turns with a reasonable sharp 100 degree tool.

Don't order a new skin. I considered the same thing when i popped a hole in my vs skin also. You're going to do this more than once . You can put a rivet on either side of this one, use an oops rivet... you have options . Craftsmanship is recovering from mistakes in this project.

Option 2 is press it flat with your pneumatic squeezer and bondo it later. Thats what I did.

A couple ounces of epoxy, micro balloons, an old hotel card key, and some sandpaper and problem solved.

1/8" rivet

Would a full head 1/8" rivet cover the damage? if so you could enlarge teh hole to 1/8", enlarge the dimple and fit an 1/8" rivet in there.

Dave

I'm a fan of the epoxy route, especially if you have already drilled and dimpled the structure. You can either set the rivet and touch the gap with a tiny bit of epoxy or you can cleco everything together with a small amount of epoxy at the hole and then clean out the dimple with a countersink before setting the rivet. Either way adds strength and much less than an ounce of weight and will be invisible after paint.

Dave_Boxall said:

Would a full head 1/8" rivet cover the damage? if so you could enlarge teh hole to 1/8", enlarge the dimple and fit an 1/8" rivet in there.

Dave

Click to expand...

Thanks Dave, it's already been enlarged to 1/8 but the head doesn't cover all.

I'll continue to explore options.

Thanks for all the suggestions everyone!!!

Keep them coming!!!