So what's funny about this? Just another in a long line of bad mistakes that I really need to figure out how to stop making. This happened on my second rivet while attaching the center nose rib to the top of the left HS skin per the plans. The "funny" part about this is that I managed to really gouge the skin very badly. Well, OK - that's not so funny, because I may now be faced with a decision to completely replace and redo all the work on this skin that I worked so hard to make perfect. Ok, so it's funny in a sad sort of way, because no less than an hour before doing this I sent an email to my friend Ron, saying that I was too afraid to try to buck these rivets all by myself, and asked if he would like to help. Then I went right out and tried to do exactly what I was afraid of doing, and now I get to deal with the result. Even more "funny" is the fact that Ron had made this exact same booboo on exactly the same rivet on exactly the same skin, but somehow I think that his ding was a little less severe than mine, but we'll see. In the mean time all riveting now comes to a screeching halt, while I contact technical counselors and get feedback from others to see of this is not so bad, or if I am ordering a new skin from Van's very shortly. As best I can tell, I did not puncture the skin, but the ridge on that divet is quite pronounced, and I am afraid that I really screwed it up. Such is the life of an airplane builder I guess.
Dude, same exactly as mine!!! It looks like its twin sister! :) I feel better now knowing it wasnt just me. I say build on, its just cosmetic, but check with Van's if you want. I can show you how to make it go away...from a cosmetic standpoint. Already did it to mine.
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