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wingtip skin repair thoughts

amaris

Well Known Member
I made a mistake when I started a year ago and drilled a few holes in the wing skin thinking platenuts would go on the skin instead of on the fiberglass.
A few were dimpled for the rivets, a few are not. And it's on the top side so I would like to not have visible rivets here once painted so I can forget I ever did that.

What's the best method for filling those holes now? I have 3-3s I could fill the holes with but then will have the shop head pressing on the fiberglass which may (or may not) vibrate the rivets and cause filler/paint failure.

Or will another filler method hold well enough to the hole and not vibrate loose?

Thanks!
 
One method is

First, resqueeze the dimpled holes flat.
Second, get a strip of very thin aluminum as long as all the holes you need to repair. You could use some thin flashing aluminum from HD or Lowe?s.
Third, scratch up the two surfaces and bond the thin strip to the under side of the wing skin with JB Weld.
Fourth, when the bond has cured, you can fill the unwanted holes with filler and they will be covered by the paint job.
Good luck.
 
What's the best method for filling those holes now? I have 3-3s I could fill the holes with but then will have the shop head.

Thanks!


You could rivet the 3-3 rivets to the aluminum skin then drill holes in the fiberglass wingtip where the shop heads hit. The hole needs to be large enough that the shop heads don?t restrict the wingtip from laying flat.
Bill
 
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