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Fixing a crease and tear? E-701-L

Sieldan

Member
So I'm working on Left Elevator. Gotten down the point where you bend the tabs to close out the left elevator trim tab slot. And I goofed it. It creased and then tore. Pics below. I'm thinking I have two options to repair. The first is stop drill the tear, then smooth out the whole corner. The second is to fab up a riblet and the cut out the tabs completely and rivet in the riblet.

Opinions? Smart remarks?

I haven't asked support at Van's yet since they are shut down due to the fires in the area.

Thanks y'all.
 

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So I'm working on Left Elevator. Gotten down the point where you bend the tabs to close out the left elevator trim tab slot. And I goofed it. It creased and then tore. Pics below. I'm thinking I have two options to repair. The first is stop drill the tear, then smooth out the whole corner. The second is to fab up a riblet and the cut out the tabs completely and rivet in the riblet.

Opinions? Smart remarks?

I haven't asked support at Van's yet since they are shut down due to the fires in the area.

Thanks y'all.

I've put together a few of these now and never liked or bothered with the fold-over idea.

Nothing wrong with cutting the tabs off, cleaning up/dressing out the tear. Fabricate a new "riblet" and pop-rivet it in place.
 

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I also do the riblets, however I just bond them in with JB Weld. Much easier.
If you do that though, make sure you rough up the areas being bonded and they will never come apart.
 
I recently folded my RV-8 elevator and trim tab..came out really nice! I read the horror stories, and proceed with great caution, but after rounding the edges of the form blocks, I went to it and they came out perfect! I don't see the reason everybody fears this step and wants to do the riblets. For the OP, I do feel the riblets are the way to repair this damage, but I would make sure the form blocks are radiused and wouldn't hesitate to proceed to fold over the trim tab.
Edit: I didn't use the rivet gun to fold over the tab, I used a small block of wood and a hammer. Easy.
 
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