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well tonight i either made a small error, and i should move on...or...i made a BIG mistake, and i need to order a new rudder skin.

i need some advise here.

here's what happened...i was happily dimpling along with the pneu squeezer when i made what seems to be a very common mistake. though it's slightly different. i just BARELY missed the hole, and ripped the hole. i didn't make a new hole and i didn't get full pressure on the squeezer by quickly realizing what was happening, and released pressure. after a few choice words, i got to looking at it, and i figured that i'd just lightly tap the metal back to flat, and dimple it to see what it does. here's a couple of pics that may or may not tell you guys anything. the hole in question is the one at the end of the rivet row.





if the picture is clear enough, you can see that the dimple turned out very nice. however, there are a couple of 1/8th inch or less tears coming off of the hole.

if i go with a 426 4- rivet, i can probably get rid of most of the tear. is this feasible here on the trailing edge? should i just go with the callout rivet and move on? should i replace the skin? i hate to do that for such a small tear, but i wonder about cracking down the road.

Chad, I didn't make my -9 rudder yet so please forgive my naivete'.

This edge is normally prosealed, correct?

It also has the wedge sandwiched in between the sheets?

Clubbing up to a -4 wouldn't be out of the question in my mind. Also, just moving on with a -3 should be fine as well, as the area seems to be TREMENDOUSLY overbuilt and the proseal will firm things up as well. A question to Van or your DAR should be your determining factor.

I don't think you will need a new skin. This is going to be a painted flyer and not a polished show-er, isn't it?

If that is tour worst screwup in the entire plane, you have nothing to worry about!

My $0.02, FWIW.

CJ

yeah, i'm gonna call van's this morning. it is prosealed and does have the wedge. that area is gonna get paint. the HS and wings may not. i am always refining my schemes.

i think it'll be fine, but i'll let ya know what van's says.

called van's, scott says no worries, build on, use the rivet callout. the wedge and pro seal are so strong, he told me to pretend it never happened. so, you guys have to pretend with me.

cjensen wrote:...so, you guys have to pretend with me.

Nut uh, as Poe Boy says, "Im tellin the judges nanananana"

Hahahaha,

Cool... The only way I am tellin' the judges is if I am neck n' neck wit ya or trophies!

(we are building almost the same plane anyways, 'cept for that whacky ass engine you are planning on!)

Keep on buildin'!

CJ

i like wacky ass stuff in general!

Hahahaha,

That's what this whole thing is all about!

CJ

Hey Chad not to worry. I'm Pro Sealing my mistakes up also. That trailing edge is a bear although my biggest cosmetic blunder was from a wandering rivet gun up around the counter weight, rudder skin junction. Nice big round ding..... and NO I'm NOT posting pictures.

hey jim, did you notice on the plans that it calls for a "slightly beveled" edge on the c-sink skin to rudder skin transition? i think it may be optional, but did you do this? i can't figure out what that means or where they're talking about. is it more specific in the checklist? i haven't read ahead yet.

I did it on my 9. As a matter of fact if you do a search you should get some pictures I believe.

Basically I beveled (sp?) the edge of is so that the transition between the two pieces of sheet was not as noticable.