Wing LE dent

[nichzimmerman]

My Bearhawk project has a roommate! My brother is keeping his PA-32-260 in the hangar until Bob overhauls his engine, which means I've been flying it more than building recently. I decided to post this question here since the topic is applicable to the Bearhawk wing, and the community here is known for ingenuity. Yesterday we had a mid-air with a BIG bird. Most of him skipped off the top of the right wing with no damage, but something caught the leading edge slightly. This is just inside the second bay inboard from the tip, so it's conceivable that I could barely access the back side with the tip tank removed. Wondering if there are ideas out there to make this mostly invisible? An auto dent removal kit is my best idea to start with right now, but I've never done this before. I've surveyed the infallible internet and only came away with anecdotes. I know...maybe I should build more and fly less :-)

Incidentally, I know plenty of A&Ps who can help on the legal side, but they aren't savvy with sheet metal. They would be happy to sit back with a cold beverage while they watch work though.

-Nic, #1217--covering w/Oratex now.

[rodsmith]

Can't help with the repair, if it was a big bird you are lucky it wasn't a lot worse. My uncle was landing at night, coincidentlay also a PA-32, heard a big thump that rocked the plane, landed with about 18" of leading edge destroyed with a small hole in it. The local hangar flyers told him he had hit a tree branch. When the mechanic removed the skin they found a ducks head inside it.

[Rollie]

Personally I would probably pull the wing tip and reach in through the lightening hole and see if I could push it back into shape. But the tip tank makes that a bit more complex so I would probably try one of the dent repair kits that basically glue a plastic thing to the dented surface and pull it out. Those things work well for this type of dent, they don't work well on creased metal or dimpled metal like a typical door ding on a car.

I have seen many certified planes with dents like you have that have been flying with the dents for years, so I guess it's more a cosmetic issue than anything else - unless the shop doing the annual says otherwise.

[stinger]

Nich, cut a hole aft of the spar and make a new inspection plate, work through the lighting holes in spar and push leading edge out best you can with a soft round object that matches the LE . Sand and make rough the surface clean with alcohol you might also take a sip, Then mix up some fiberglass resin with micro balloons fill the area, cover with peel ply,( aka stitch fabric) let dry. Do several applications, sand prime and paint. good luck. Stinger

[Bdflies]

I bought a dent repair kit, from Eastwood (https://www.eastwood.com/eastwood-pa...SABEgLQcfD_BwE). Not the kind of thing one is going to use regularly, but for the price I didn't think I could go wrong. It actually works pretty well. As Rollie said, it won't restore a crease, but it just might surprise you on that wing. Good luck!

Bill

[tailwind]

You might also try rolling the high spots carefully with a kitchen rolling pin. It will not totally remove the damage but may change the surrounding stresses enough to allow some of the dent to return to original shape.

[BH Dreamer]

Have you seen how Mike Patey pulled a dent out of his pickup door? Not sure if that would work here or not.

https://youtu.be/5NW4mzJpkL4

[Bacon]

Call your nearest exotic car dealer, ask the service manager who is their go to PDR(paintless dent repair) guy is. If they have done PDR on anything aluminum, they will make this disappear.
When I worked In the autobody trade, we would call in this one guy all the time. Best work I‘ve seen was on a 1st gen Honda NSX 1/4 panel. It was mangled with creases and stressed highs, luckily no paint was cracked. by the time he was done, if it weren’t for our trained eyes seeing the tiiiiiniest level of orange peel being sanded and buffed out on one little area, we wouldn’t have been able to tell. Took him 2-3 hours, best $500 spent. Your dent should cost less than half and take longer to unpack the tools and warm the glue gun.
Some PDR techs do hail damage on planes if I recall correctly But any of them that can do aluminum cars should suffice for this level of damage.
Most dent guys have a tool called a lifter or glue puller, where on inaccessible panels they glue little tabs and use concise lifting force /pulls so your access woes for pushing shouldn’t be an issue. It’s a plus when there isn’t any paint to worry about.
If you try your hand at removing a dent your self, use shiny clear packing tape and a lighted reflection/line board (both on Amazon for cheap) This makes the contours of the dent waaaay more apparent.
You can pick up cheap dent tools with rounded soft tips for pushing, lifters for pulling, plastic knockdowns and hammers for cheap But buy premium glue and tabs.
Worth the investment but has a very (emphasis on very) steep learning curve to get perfect. It’s an art as much as it’s metallurgy. I took lessons, and worked closely with PDR guys and only feel confident to do my own car at best.