Fixing Small Dents in Leading Edge

[Daveembry]

Just as I was beginning to start painting my wings I noticed that I had gotten a couple of dents in the leading edge of one of them. I'm not sure how it happened but I think it was when we were moving them to the paint booth. Anyway what we found is some advice from my friend who does lots of bodywork and he said to take a small block of wood and hold it right in the center crease of one side of the dent and then take a rubber mallet and lightly tap decrease on the opposite side and go back-and-forth. It took very little tabs of the rubber hammer and the dent just moved right out and went away perfectly. Needless to say, I was quite happy and thought I would pass this along. (Note that in the photos here, I have already fixed the dents but you can see where they were and the top and bottom creases that I put the board on and tapped with the mallet)

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[Cubrath]

I'm glad that worked for you. Dents in the leading edge stick out like sore thumbs!!

[Daveembry]

I'm glad that worked for you. Dents in the leading edge stick out like sore thumbs!!

No kidding! I was just sick about it all afternoon and night trying to figure out a way to fix it without replacing the skin. After I fixed it yesterday I was on cloud 9 the rest of the day!

[Cubrath]

Make sure you figure out what caused it so it doesn't happen again. One of the local guys here had perfect finished wings then put them in the wing racks and rolled them across the ramp. It bottomed out on the rack and dented both leading edges.

[Daveembry]

Make sure you figure out what caused it so it doesn't happen again. One of the local guys here had perfect finished wings then put them in the wing racks and rolled them across the ramp. It bottomed out on the rack and dented both leading edges.

I think that is exactly what happened. My driveway is flat so they rolled up the ramp fine but the driveway had a big slope downward at the paint booth and I think they high centered because the ramp was at a greater angle.