woops, dimpled the rear spar

[tmbg]

I have my left elevator finished except for the trim tab, and I left the top of the rear spar unriveted because the trim hinge will go there, but I have already dimpled the spar and the skin. Anyone have any tips on match drilling the hinge now? I plan on just cleco clamping the hinge to the skin square to the dimples and hoping it comes out well!

I also haven't bent the tabs yet.

I managed to set solid rivets in the rear spar inside where the elevator tabs bend down, all but two of them. On one side of the skin, I was able to get all four by using my tungsten bar, for the innermost two I slid the bar in there then backed it up with a screwdriver to put pressure on the rivet. On the other side, however, the shop heads from side A precluded this technique.

Unfortunately, I didn't pay enough attention to do the top skin first, so it's the top skin which got the two blind rivets. C'est la vie!

[Spike]

Hmmm, I dont think thats going to work. Dimpling the hinge is not a good practice in my opinion because it will put waves in it which will make it very difficult to get the pin in and keep it from binding. You really need to get the top of that rear spar countersunk so that the hinge can sit flush against it. Id pull it apart and see what you can do about undimpling it or just order a new rear spar.

Spike

[tmbg]

ah crap, even worse. I'll see if I can drill out the end rib rivets and peel the skin back, smush those dimples flat and countersink them. After all (repeat after me), "You can un-dimple ONCE!"