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Replacing Skin, drilling new holes to size

GeoffH

Active Member
Hello, I'm thinking of replacing a rudder skin. The part of the process that I'm not sure of is match drilling the new skin holes to the existing dimpled structure. Should the pre-punched skin holes be drilled to size while on the bench or should the skin be clecoed to the structure then drilled? If the holes are drilled first and then the skin installed will it properly fit the structure? However if the skin is first clecoed to the dimpled structure any misalignment is just going to cause the holes in the structure to become oversize when drilled.
 
Honestly if it were me I think I?d do a whole new one. I would guess the difference in parts cost wouldn?t be too bad.
-dave
 
Cleco the new skin to the old one flat on a bench and check that all the holes line up. If so, cleco the new one to the rudder, check it's all straight then match drill.
 
Geoff,

If the original skin was pre-punched, I?m betting you can just drill the holes in the new skin to size, debur, and dimple and it would match perfectly. I had to replace a forward side skin on my RV-8 before removing the ?canoe? from the fixture and it matched up very well. That included the seemingly hundreds of holes in the landing gear box area! The reason I had to replace the skin is because I had an air hose failure that put a large outward dent on the skin.

All that said, I agree with Dave. The parts are inexpensive, especially since you will already be paying for shipping for the skin. Also, it is likely less effort to build a new rudder than it would be to drill out all of those rivets.
 
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