Managed to hit some "breakaway" airfield lights back in January, and dinged a wing.
Oops.
Coulda been worse.
The lights have a concrete base that would likely have destroyed the wing and fuselage if hit.
The manufacturer's grandsons who have taken over whatever is left of the business suggested a complete re-skin of the outer wing at their facility in New York. that would be two sheets, about six feet wide, from the top trailing edge around the leading edge tp the main spar on the bottom about 1/2 way back on the wing.
Uh huh.
My Airframe and Powerplant mechanic with Inspection Authorization stared at it a while and figured we could fix it.
Bought a Chinese metal roll/brake/shear (left) and a bunch of little odds and ends to cur/grind/drill/rivet aluminum.
There's a decent shop area in the back of the clubhouse. More than enough room for a 24 foot wing.
Make some judicious cuts, form some 0.040 2024-T3 Aluminum sheet.
Pull out some of the dents. He had what looks like copper wire, that isn't, bent in an 8 inch "U" with 90 degree bends on the ends, to stick in a hole and bang/pull dents, like at the lower left below. Hook an end into a hole in the metal, and bang the inside of the "U" with a hammer, and a bigger hammer. I don't know what kind of wire it is, don't see it online.
Countersink the hole and fill it with a rivet before the Bondo goes on.
The metal machine made some bretty good bends in the aluminum, too. It's real springy stuff, not soft aluminum at all. I was surprised how tough it is.
Form a backing plate that goes inside, drill with a 1/8" and then a #30 drill to clear burs, countersink the holes a few thousandths for flush rivets, hold it all together with some "Cleco" clamps. Gotta have a pair of "Cleco" pliers to set and pull those.
When ready, borrow the specialty air rivet gun with a nose specially for the Cherry rivets, and stick it together.
Tiny (1/8" rivets shank, 0.192" head, countersunk with 100 degree cutter. The rivets are like pop rivets but are "aerospace" quality and have five parts to them. There's even a "shelf life" on the things due to a little lube between the rivet and pulling shank. If the lube is no good, you might not get a good "pull".
Cherry Aerospace Flush rivets, $0.50/each with a hundred in a bag. Used about 150 of them just looking at what was left in the second bag.
Add a little Bondo and it's ready to go.
Repair work logged in the log book and signed off as "airworthy".
Soon, I'll do a second pass with the Bondo, to get it "good enough", then figure out how to spray it with some Ranthane...
We're tired of working on it right now, so back to the flight line.
Ouch!
I guess it's an "epoxy paint" - paint and hardener.
Hope there's some on the shelf somelpace in the workroom. They've been refinishing some other planes in white, maybe the same stuff.
Don't need much!
Couple or three ounces, enought to fill the paint gun reservoir a little.