One of the more unique jobs we’ve taken on this year was a sheet metal restoration project for a vintage aircraft — a 1948 twin-engine that’s being brought back to airworthy condition by a private owner. We were asked to fabricate and install replacement aluminum skin panels on a section of the lower fuselage. All work had to follow original manufacturing methods, which in this case meant solid shank rivets, not pulled.
The skin material was 2024-T3 alclad aluminum, 0.032″ — the same spec as the original. Rivet spacing followed the original pattern: 1″ pitch, 3/16″ AN470 rivets in double-shear to the underlying ribs and stringers. We drilled all the holes with a rivet spacing tool, deburred both sides, then dimpled the skin and countersunk the structure to match.
Setting solid rivets properly requires two people — one with a bucking bar on the back side, one driving with a rivet gun up front. We had a two-man team with aircraft sheet metal experience do the entire section, which was about 600 rivets total. Every rivet head was checked for correct shop head diameter and height per AC 43.13 standards. The finished panels looked factory, and the owner was thrilled. This kind of work is outside our normal production jobs, but we enjoy the challenge when it comes along.