Brief Description: Replace Rivets on Right Aileron
I succesfully replaced most of the bad rivets. Had one that was "clubbed" that I drilled and replaced a second time with poor results, so I overdrilled to #30 and used an "oops" rivet to get a good rivet.
The overdriven rivet was a problem. I drilled and removed the factory head with no issues. When I tried to grab the shop head and extract the rivet body, the shop head was so thin it just broke apart. I tried to drive out the rivet with a punch, but it didn’t move. I used a #42 drill to drill deeper into the body trying to get it out. The body was not moving, so I drilled deeper and deeper into the body. I finally drilled so deep the bit broke through the back side. Once the body was removed I saw the drill had gotten off-center and I had a “snowman” hole on the back (spar) side. I drilled the original hole to #30, deburred, and and inserted an “oops” rivet. The oops shop head does not completely cover the “snowman”. Also riveted the top of the forward skin to the ribs.
I continued with the aileron assembly while I debated what to do next. Finally, I wrote to Van's to get their opinion on what to do: repair, replace the spar, build on?