Elevator ding

01 Sep 2005 Elevator ding

Ouch. I’m not happy. My left elevator just fell off a workbench and landed on a can of kerosene, dinging the leading edge.

I’m going to see if I can find a metal expert here in Switzerland to fix it for me. I’ve drilled out the rivets and tried to push the ding out, but it’s not really coming out too easily. I have a feeling that someone with the right tools could do this in about 10 minutes or less. I hope I can find someone.

Update:

Emmett suggested I make a type of wheel to try to roll out the dent. Here’s what I did.

First a couple of pictures after trying to move the dent out with the handle of a pair of pliers:

Here is the tool I made. I used a spare wheel from an Avery edge bending tool, a bit of angle, and some flat sheet.

Here’s what it looks like with some serious rolling. A lot of sweat went into that, and it’s still not perfect. I did a test fit on the aircraft, and the ding is not noticable from the top at all, only from the bottom. If I see someone looking under there, I’ll try to find a way to distract them. (Perhaps I’ll use K.H.’s trick and “accidentally” step on their hand!)