How to fix minor wing trailing edge damage

[Desert Rat]

Let’s say that hypothetically a guy was working to remove the dreaded ski jump trailing edge from a set of older wings. He may have gotten a little exuberant and ended up with one small buckle where he foolishly stretched the skin in the area of the left aileron inboard hinge.

He then sent a picture to a paint-less dent guy who’s been known to take a dent out of the odd bonanza and whatnot, who told him that it was unlikely that he could get it 100% straight again, but he could easily form in a little doghouse there so that it would look like it was supposed to be there.

If you were this hypothetical guy, would you:
A- let the PDR guy work his magic and put a little doghouse in this area on both sides and and call it a speed mod.

B- cut out the warp as indicated by the sharpie lines and call it a part of the optional Delrin aileron stop mod

C- fret About it all weekend because that’s what we do and there may be another option I haven’t thought of

Hypothetically of course, because nobody would be dumb enough to do this in real life

 

[HFS]

Hypothetically ...

If you had access, you would use a "shrinker".

HFS

 

[Desert Rat]

I thought about that, but I have to confess I have no experience with a shrink at all. I looked online and the only one I was was a sort of bench top model so that’s why I called the dent guy.

Do they make a handheld version. What I’m envisioning is something like a reverse action wire stripper?

If that’s a thing, I would give it a go

 

[Bruce]

Or do nothing.


If the aileron will move without catching the edge.

Boomer

 

[PaulvS]

A side effect of a shrinker is that it will marr the metal because it has little "teeth" that grip the metal to unstretch it.

Another option D is to fill the dent with an appropriate filler prior to painting. The skin edge will end up being a little thicker but that should be less noticeable than a blemish in the flat surface,

 

[Dad's RV-10]

"I was in the pool!" - George Costanza