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Paintless dent repair on an airplane cowl
A guy in my friends hangar whacked his plane into another one while pulling it out. Cessna cowls are thin hard aluminum, likely 2024t3 but I'm guessing, and if you try to planish them the tools jus bounce off. A replacement, well, you don't want to ask how much.
So they called one of these auto paintless dent removal guys. He showed up and set up his light board. My friend said it was a bit like watching a guy divining for water. He tapped here and there around the creases, quite far from the dent and it just went pop in a couple of minutes. Many of tbese 40 yr old cowlings get installed and removed so much that they pick up dozens of little ripples and irregularities so the owner, after seeing the "magic" asked if he could look at those. So he tapped and tapped and pushed and one by one they all disappeared. My friend stood there with his mouth open. I wish I had pics. I think this is relevant to metal shaping because removing small dents is the same as tweaking a panel that you are making. And undersranding how to release the internal stresses is part of reading a panel whether you are fabricating or repairing. Most if these guys do cars exclusively. I wonder if aircraft work is that much different. Typically on cessnas you are looking at .025" or .032" 2024t3. Can't be any tougher than the steel in the newer cars.
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Scott in Montreal Last edited by sblack; 05-06-2019 at 10:24 PM. |
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Quote:
Scott, Yes, Cessnas after about 1957 used 2024T3 on most if not all external skins. Yes, it is hard to work. Heat, used sparingly, helps, and finesse is the big technique. No wham bam slam. It is a head game. You got a good guy (makes very good money in the right markets!)
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Kent http://www.tinmantech.com "All it takes is a little practical experience to blow the he!! out of a perfectly good theory." --- Lloyd Rosenquist, charter member AWS, 1919. |
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Apparently he travels all over the world, following hail storms like the natives followed the heards of buffalo hundreds of years ago
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Scott in Montreal |
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One of the early MetalMeet guys was a Painless Dent Repair guy. He did a demo at the first Oblong meet using John 'Boogiemanz' Brown's Surburban. After taking out a few hail dings, someone asked him if he could do larger dents also. He said 'sure!' and proceeded to wack a big dent in John's hood. I was standing beside John and thought he was going to have a stroke...then I thought I might have to call 911 because John was going to kill the guy.
About 5 minutes later, you could not see the dent even if you knew where to look.
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Kerry Pinkerton |
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This youtube channel mentions the fairmont method of dent removal and builds on it from there. It is pretty interesting to watch and on one clip he uses a hard sharp point tool to shrink the metal in a dent. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhk62edCemo&t=657s
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Steve ærugo nunquam dormit |
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