F-01448 Aft gear brace

Big oooppssss....

I misread the directions and failed to dimple the #40 holes in the center of the aft gear brace, and now it is partially installed on the lower skin. Due to the left and right sides, I am not able to remove thirty or so rivets and slide it out. It wont fit. So now I must remove many more rivets from the seat ribs to get it out, dimple the holes, reinstall, and move on. Any cool tricks on how to dimple the brace without removing it? Arghhh.

So you already moved on past page 26-13? If so, how far? Looks like the corresponding holes in the F-01484 lower skin would have been dimpled. Is the brace assembly sitting on top of those dimples? If so you’re probably going to have other issues as that brace needs to be flush to the skin.

1. Might you be able to use the dimple dies that fit in a rivet puller? Not perfect but I would think preferable to removing many rivets?

2. Call Vans on Monday. Guaranteed you’re not the first to do this.

Are the skin holes dimpled? If not I'd just use AN470 rivets and build on.

If skin holes are alread dimple, it might be possible to "un-dimple" the skin holes more easily than dimpling the brace.

Of course I agree that checking with Van's is a good plan

yes, the skin holes are dimpled. I sent an email to Vans a bit ago. Will be a long weeked


I tried (lightly) with the pulled rivet dimple tool, but I don't think it has enough strength to get through the skin and brace.

I came across this web site last night, looking for a parking brake setup. https://www.smashsrv-14build.com/2020/02/section-33-hours-18-some-of-places-ive.html

It has a nice picture of some dimple dies set into a rivet set and bucking bar. This approach would probably work with a few chunks of steel with a hole drilled into it to hold the die. Tap it with a hammer a time or two. It would be worth a shot if you didn't want to drill out a lot of rivets.

I spoke with Vans today and they recommended exactly what Jeff suggested, if the pulled rivet setup would not work. A female die in a steel bar and a few taps with the rivet gun (set @40psi) worked very well.

This group is awesome-thanks for the help.