re: [VAL] holes in belly pan

["Tom" <thomm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> Can you tell I used to teach high school Industrial Arts ?
> Daisy


Industrial Arts, huh?  That must have been Heavy Industry *arts* you taught?

All the advice I posted and the advice of other aviation people who have 
experience in the industry was pretty much on target.

No, no one was kidding about the files, radiused edges, edge distances, 
space between rivets and rivet sizes just to name a few.

There are ways to do a cut-and-paste repair using aluminum foil tape with 
goop adhesive on the back as some may but then again there are those that 
will repair their units the way the were meant to be repaired.  We are after 
all working with aircraft aluminum, rivets and so many other things used in 
aviation so if anyone asks we may as well give them the answers they are 
looking for as to ways to go about doing things correctly.

If you don't have much money to do things the right way then maybe 
cut-and-paste slap on repairs might work - for you.  But, that is not the 
correct way to do things and I believe the poster was asking how to repair 
the belly skin the *correct way*.  Anyone can do fast and sloppy work and it 
looks that way when  you are done, too.  If anyone is going to the effort to 
ask how a repair is done we should at least tell them the right way it 
should be done - I'm sure they could do fast, cheap and sloppy work without 
batting an eye as we all could, if we worked that way.  In "industry" you 
can't do sloppy work and expect to get paid for it.  Repairing those little 
'ol things like Airstream trailers that weigh so many tons is an art - but 
it's not of the type of "industrial art" you were doing I'm sure of that 
unless you also taught aviation maintenance and repair of all aircraft 
systems.

In times past I've read about people telling others to just use a bolt, 
washers, a nut and some sealer to patch a hole in exterior skin.  If you'd 
read those posts you would *almost believe* they were saying how to fix the 
hole in the correct fashion, they weren't.  What they said would stop a leak 
for a time but again it was a fast, sloppy and cheap repair for them.

It doesn't do much good if someone asks how to properly fix our Airstream 
trailers if we get out the tin snips, a roll of aluminum flashing, some 
adhesive goop.  This is not a proper way to repair such an expensive piece 
of equipment.

Maybe when we tell others how we'd fix something like the holes in the belly 
skin it would help the one asking the question if we told them what kind of 
experience we are backing up our replies with and why we are saying what we 
are saying.

Repairing Airstreams as expensive as they are isn't a craft project like 
making a scrapbook, rubber stamps or anything else people do to save money. 
Airstream use and ownership costs money if you expect to have any long use 
out of either a new Airstream or an older vintage model.  However, they all 
still get repaired the same way using approved methods.  I doubt the factory 
would think much of your way of making these belly skin repairs *unless* it 
was an emergency "get me home" type of repair.  I'd go along with what you 
said for a very temporary emergency patch, but certainly not for doing work 
that will last so you don't have to do it over again.  Last but not least 
these repairs should not look like a repair when you are finished - the way 
myself and others told the poster to go about doing the repair would not 
look like a kid with scissors, paper and paste did it for them.

Tom Meeker
WBCCI 5303
*Sport-Camper at Large*