I'm hoping someone who has done a lot of aircraft repair would be willing to talk to me for a few minutes on the phone. I don't know if I need to order new parts or if I need reassurance.
A while back I was assembling my left elevator and in dimpling the rear spar on the upper side where the hinge would affix I managed to have the squeezer slip and put a dent in the spar. I straightened it out very but not perfectly straight - perfectly straight I think is beyond my tooling and craft skills. I decided it was okay and kept going - the location was right where the most inboard rib rivets in.
Then as I went along all was awesome until on the last pop rivet inside the assembly I totally botched it with a tight fit between the lower rib and the trim access plate stiffener. I couldn't get the bad rivet out and made a mess of the rib and the stiffener. So I drilled out the skin rivets holding them in, and took them out without injury to the skin. Ordered anew, and went to put them back in.
The blind rivets between the rib and stiffener are set fine. The rivets on the trim tab stiffener lower skin are set fine. The shop heads aren't as nice as when I could back rivet them on the original assembly sequence but I think they are all in spec. The skin is scratched a bit but pretty good.
On the upper skin I managed to make the skin along the upper rib rivet line look pretty rough. On the inside of this the rivets are set properly but again not as nice as when back riveting.
I got the advice from Vans to pop rivet the rib to the rear spar with MSP-42 blind rivets and I haven't set that yet but I have them in hand.
So the question I want to ask the voice of long experience. If the spar is straight but not perfectly so, and the skin is rough looking where I set the rivets on the upper inboard rib in assembly, should I just finish up and keep on with it, or do I tear it down for the ribs and hinge and order new skins and rear spar to make it better? Outboard of my flaws my elevator looks great. I have held off on putting the fwd spar on while I ponder this question.
Usually when I have to ask a question like this the answer is in the question - "yes, you should because you are asking". But in this venture I don't know what is acceptable and what is cosmetic?
PM me if you can talk a minute…. It's kind of funny to talk repairs when building new isn't it!!!
A while back I was assembling my left elevator and in dimpling the rear spar on the upper side where the hinge would affix I managed to have the squeezer slip and put a dent in the spar. I straightened it out very but not perfectly straight - perfectly straight I think is beyond my tooling and craft skills. I decided it was okay and kept going - the location was right where the most inboard rib rivets in.
Then as I went along all was awesome until on the last pop rivet inside the assembly I totally botched it with a tight fit between the lower rib and the trim access plate stiffener. I couldn't get the bad rivet out and made a mess of the rib and the stiffener. So I drilled out the skin rivets holding them in, and took them out without injury to the skin. Ordered anew, and went to put them back in.
The blind rivets between the rib and stiffener are set fine. The rivets on the trim tab stiffener lower skin are set fine. The shop heads aren't as nice as when I could back rivet them on the original assembly sequence but I think they are all in spec. The skin is scratched a bit but pretty good.
On the upper skin I managed to make the skin along the upper rib rivet line look pretty rough. On the inside of this the rivets are set properly but again not as nice as when back riveting.
I got the advice from Vans to pop rivet the rib to the rear spar with MSP-42 blind rivets and I haven't set that yet but I have them in hand.
So the question I want to ask the voice of long experience. If the spar is straight but not perfectly so, and the skin is rough looking where I set the rivets on the upper inboard rib in assembly, should I just finish up and keep on with it, or do I tear it down for the ribs and hinge and order new skins and rear spar to make it better? Outboard of my flaws my elevator looks great. I have held off on putting the fwd spar on while I ponder this question.
Usually when I have to ask a question like this the answer is in the question - "yes, you should because you are asking". But in this venture I don't know what is acceptable and what is cosmetic?
PM me if you can talk a minute…. It's kind of funny to talk repairs when building new isn't it!!!
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