Good day all,

I was dropping some parts off to an AME today and there was an aircraft there
that was being worked on. The AME said that during that last paint job the
process that was used had "flattened" some of the rivets on the wing skins etc.
He said the rivets were no longer airworthy and many would need to be replaced.
Funny thing was the aircraft had not been painted in years. Has anyone ever
heard of this type of damage being done by a paint job, and what process would
cause this.

Cheers

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I've seen it here local. An owner performed strip and repaint on a Warrior.

The process is know to many as DA Sander!

I have been involved in the repair of this kind of damage. It happens more often than one would think. Caused by scotch pads or sanding disk on power tools. You have to work carefully around rivits and shouldn't use power equipment during the prep work unless it is flush rivited.

They make cute little pads just for doing this, they are like a stack of soft scotch brite discs on a shaft. Used with caution on a slow speed power tool they do a fairly good job of cleaning paint off around rivet heads without damage to the dome.
Of course with stubborn paint you will still have to do hand work.

I can go one even better. On the experimental side of aviation the Zenith line of planes use Avex pulled rivets. Chris Heintz, the designer had a vision where he took the riveting head, machined it into a concave dome and uses flat rivets. During the pulling process the head is reconformed into a dome, as that happens it work hardens it and makes a great fastener. Been doing it for years..

So this guy who just finished one of the 601 series planes takes his down to the local auto body shop, gets a quote for a urathene paint job, like the price and leaves the plane without telling those guys the structural properties of the rivet heads. Fast forward a few weeks..............................

Comes to pick up his pride and joy and walla, real smooth paint, and ,,, NO FRIGGIN RIVET HEADS.

Long story real short.. Plane was virtually JUNK...

Stol wrote:
Comes to pick up his pride and joy and walla, real smooth paint, and ,,, NO FRIGGIN RIVET HEADS.

Long story real short.. Plane was virtually JUNK...

But it shur was pretty junk!