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Dent in my wing

DylanRush

Active Member
About a month ago a not so great driver was racing down perimeter road at my airport, crashed into a fence, and sent pieces of the fence flying into my tie down. He rolled his car, survived and last I heard was on the run from police. The damage to my plane could have been a lot worse. My wheel fairings were destroyed, and there were thumb sized dents in my left wing and left flaps.

Insurance is covering everything so I am getting some free wheel pants and touch up paint out of this.

Basically I wanted to share photos of the damage and hear what you all think about the structural integrity. I’ve had three different A&P’s tell me it’s safe to fly, but I wanted to hear from the peanut gallery too. Also curious if any of you would be dissuaded from performing aerobatics with it in the future.

Current plan is to fill the dent with bondo and paint over. It’s a 1997 6A. I’ve flown it about four or five times with no issues so far.
 

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fuel tank dent

Wow - that's a first for me, a car crash damaging an RV!

Best thing to do is to check with the factory to see if they recommend a patch or fill with something like bondo.

Hard to tell if the 2024 is stretched to the point where it's weaker or not from the photo - seems like it was, but could be an illusion. I think a patch here would not be very hard, and would give you a bit more piece of mind than some bondo.

Also, since insurance is covering it, why not do it 100%? I'd consider building a new tank, but even a well-implemented patch would not be visible and would be stronger than just covering it with bondo.
 
I performed an inspection at Compton some years back and in the next hangar parked in the corner nearest the road was a Beech Staggerwing, a DUI driver ran through the boundary chainlink fence, through an inner fence, through the wall and into the metal hangar and TOTALED the aircraft. The steel tube fuselage was kinked about 30 degrees.

I still remember the perfection of the welds on the fuselage. I wanted to cut a sample weld section to keep.

To the point, John Thorp, designer of the T-18, had his hangar door blown off the rails by the Santana winds. A piece damaged the bottom of the wing skin, causing a dent about .250 deep x .500 wide and 1" long.

John was still working as a DER and he riveted a (from memory) 1.250 x 1.750 patch, effectively doubling the skin in the area.

FWIW.
 
What I would do

What I would do is get insurance to pay for a new tank , build it at your leisure (or have it built and painted), and while all that is happening,fill the dent , paint touch up..fly the *&^% out of it and monitor for leaks. You may never replace the tank, but you'll have a new one if needed. The skin wont just rip open on its own, and there is little threat to any structural failure there. If it cracks over time, a detectable leak will occur very small at first. My opinion comes from 40 years of experience in aircraft structures and not just a guess.
 
ditto on letting insurance pay for a new tank. I would remove some of the paint in the area to see what is hidden. Hard to tell with photos, but one on the right shows a crack to the left of the gouge. Is that just paint, or?
 
insurance is covering.

Like Bill said, that is also what I would do. But the whole thing is a bit of a bummer even if insurance is covering, what a hassle all because of a careless driver.

I don't think that a riveted patch would be feasible because it's on the fuel tank and adjacent to a rib... would be a fair bit of effort to open up the tank, clean off old sealant, insert and seal the patch and possibly doubler for it to be not too obvious from the outside, and to be certain of no future leaks....
 
Building a new tank for a 6A is no easy task. Lots of match drilling to the existing airframe.

It seems that damage has some real probability of progressing to a small crack and leak. Doesn't seem structural.

A patch repair would seem to be the best, and that will involve taking the back baffle off.

I'd go with whatever Van's has to say.
 
ditto on letting insurance pay for a new tank. I would remove some of the paint in the area to see what is hidden. Hard to tell with photos, but one on the right shows a crack to the left of the gouge. Is that just paint, or?

That is a crack in the paint, it’s not an actual crack in the metal. The rib was bent ever so slightly enough to cause the paint to crack there.

All of the A&P’s I talked to said I’m lucky that it’s a rounded dent; if the dent had any angle to it, then it would be very likely to crack open.

I’ll give Van’s a call and see what they think.

When you all say I should get a new tank, do you mean a new wing or a new structure inside the wing?
 
I have a similar dent in the bottom of a wing tank that I have been watching for 9 years.

First of all -- worrying about the local structural strength of the skin in a spot like that is unnecessary. Our wings are not "stressed skin" wings. The loads that are ultimately carried by the spar get there through a wide distribution of load over large areas, gathered up by the ribs and passed into the spar. A small local defect in the skin is just not a problem.

I would NOT fill the dent. You need to be able to continue to monitor/inspect it, in case it makes a fine crack and leaks fuel sometime in the future. So just watch it.

Likewise don't patch it. A riveted patch is going to require drilling holes into the tank and using sealed blind rivets. Why make for-sure leaks by drilling holes into the tank to 'fix' a maybe-someday leak? If you get a hairline crack and it leaks sometime in the future, then patch it with a skin doubler.

Of the various options, the only one that I might consider is to strip the paint off an area around it, and bond on a patch of aluminum with proseal, with no holes drilled into the tank.

I wouldn't lose a moment's sleep over it. Just keep an eye on it.
 
When you all say I should get a new tank, do you mean a new wing or a new structure inside the wing?

The tank is removable, it is held on by two rows of screws, on the upper and lower surface of the wing. The tank forms the leading edge for the inboard part of the wing. The tanks can be removed without taking the whole wing off but there's a few things to disconnect. A new tank would need to be made to exactly match the dimensions of the existing tank, as these planes were more 'hand made' than current CNC kits.

The advice to get a new tank is because insurance is covering all the costs now. The risk of not repairing now is that there is a possibility that those rivets in the area around the dent might start weeping in future and then insurance won't cover it anymore. If there wasn't insurance then I'd just repaint the gouged bare metal and no bondo. A buddy of mine has a much bigger crease on the underside of the fuselage from running over a traffic cone and it has been fine for many years and nobody notices it unless they roll on the ground under the plane.
 
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Interesting timing: latest AOPA describes how their A36 had a bird strike, leaving a dent and a small hole in the leading edge of the wing. $20,000 later, it’s fixed...
 
I had a bird strike 1.5 weeks ago in my RV-6A. Dented the LE of the right wing tank in second bay out from the fuselage. The bird hit and rolled back so I've a couple of dents on top of the wing including what appears to be a small dent in front of the tank's rear baffle an a crack in the paint. Hopefully my picture will post. I'd open to suggestions on how to repair, plane flys fine with no changes.
a. do nothing
b. get dents removed and paint touched up. I am thinking of a mobile paintless dent repair person, but also, this tank as a flop tube in it so as luck has it, I could remove the fuelsensor from the rear baffle and perhaps have access to the interior of the tank in the bay that is damaged.
c. rebuild the tank.
SNrDkSmqAtg

Thanks for your thoughts, Marty
 
Marty, looks like you we’re lucky! I’ve heard of bird strikes ending up a lot worse. Also, you picked a great color

I may have to wait a few days to hear back from Van’s, but I will update when I hear back. They said they are all returning back to work after a week’s break due to fires and are now catching up on emails and orders.
 
Marty,

I don't know enough about paintless dent repair to know their capability. Might be worth a try.

Those are pretty minor dents, but probably should fix the leading edge one way or another. If the paintless guys can not do it, and you can get inside from the rear baffle access, you may be able to push it back pretty close to perfect.

the concern for the leading edge is that that a smooth convex shape plays a role in the torsional stiffness/strength. Kind of like standing on a coke can with a dent in the side compared to a perfect can. That is quite an exaggeration, of course, but it might be measurably different.
 
Marty, looks like you we’re lucky! I’ve heard of bird strikes ending up a lot worse. Also, you picked a great color

I may have to wait a few days to hear back from Van’s, but I will update when I hear back. They said they are all returning back to work after a week’s break due to fires and are now catching up on emails and orders.

Yes, I've seen one where the leading edge was pushed all the way back to the spar.
 
I did send a message to Van’s with pictures and hope to hear back, maybe from Scott Mc Daniels, hint hint! Marty
 
Van’s suggested “using a maroon scotchbrite pad (by hand) and remove all scratches in the damaged area and inspecting very closely, if no gouges remain after scotchbriting I would prime and paint the damaged area and continue to watch it. Do not cover it with body filler or a glued-on patch.”

And “ I don't think your wing kit used pre-punched skins therefore matching a new tank skin to your wing would be a lot of work. It may not be worth the effort to build a new tank and try to make it fit your wing. If it develops a leak then a riveted patch would probably be the best way to go.”
 
my bet is at least one of the two closest rivets will start to weep soon. since it flexed it enough to crack the paint, it flexed enough to crack the proseal inside.

bob burns
RV-4 N82RB
 
my bet is at least one of the two closest rivets will start to weep soon. since it flexed it enough to crack the paint, it flexed enough to crack the proseal inside.

bob burns
RV-4 N82RB

I hope this doesn't happen!

So I didn't really communicate to my painter that he should avoid using bondo or any other filler, and he ended up filling the dent a bit. I'll continue to monitor it, and I'm thinking that if a leak does develop then I will see it somewhere.

New wheel fairings are coming this winter - they were also severely damaged in the accident. Plane is definitely a bit slower without them.
 

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my bet is at least one of the two closest rivets will start to weep soon. since it flexed it enough to crack the paint, it flexed enough to crack the proseal inside.

bob burns
RV-4 N82RB

My experience counters this. Its been 10 years since I dented the tank right on a rib. Right on a couple of rivets. Paint cracked. I watch it regularly, but not a drip in 10 years.
 
Fix for leading edge damage

Well, not really! I put a dent between two ribs outboard of the fuel cell on my RV9 in a stupid ground maneuvering incident. My mechanic said it is relatively easy fix by adding an inspection plate and working the dent out.
While mulling about my stupidity, I came up with this idea: why not add a landing light? The one I have on the other wing is pretty inadequate to begin with.
I tried to write a post on this idea to get some feedback, but have no clue how to access the forum. Anybody reading this can help me out in this respect?
Rudy
 
Fix for leading edge damage

Well, not really! I put a dent between two ribs outboard of the fuel cell on my RV9 in a stupid ground maneuvering incident. My mechanic said it is relatively easy fix by adding an inspection plate and working the dent out.
While mulling about my stupidity, I came up with this idea: why not add a landing light? The one I have on the other wing is pretty inadequate to begin with.
I tried to write a post on this idea to get some feedback, but have no clue how to access the forum. Anybody reading this can help me out in this respect?
Rudy
 
Good idea!

Well, not really! I put a dent between two ribs outboard of the fuel cell on my RV9 in a stupid ground maneuvering incident. My mechanic said it is relatively easy fix by adding an inspection plate and working the dent out.
While mulling about my stupidity, I came up with this idea: why not add a landing light? The one I have on the other wing is pretty inadequate to begin with.
I tried to write a post on this idea to get some feedback, but have no clue how to access the forum. Anybody reading this can help me out in this respect?
Rudy
Good idea to install a landing light rather than just a patch, assuming you need one. Something about lemons --> lemonade! :)

BTW, welcome to the forum. Your post showed up twice. To get the full VAF experience, just go here and click around: https://vansairforce.net/

To get right to the most recent posts on the forum that you probably have not seen, go here: https://vansairforce.net/community/search.php?do=getdaily
 
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