Let's say that some of the pre-drilled holes don't line up exactly so I drilled my own.

 

That means I still have a few of those #40 (3/32 inch) holes in the skin that have nothing behind them.

 

Will bondo, primer, paint, fill that in?  Is there some other product I should use?

 

In my case, it's a half dozen horizontal stabilizer skin holes that lined up with flutes on ribs rather than flat spots.  They're on the bottom and not that noticable (except I know they're there).

 

Suggestions?

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Why not simply pop a rivet in them - clean, wont fall out and paints up nicely... (we usually have a few rivets in places that are not planned.... and once painted nobody notices...
Yea, the way to go is to put a rivet in the hole even if it doesn't connect to anything. Would be surprising if anyone ever noticed. The bondo would probably eventually fall out.
I thought about putting rivets in the holes to plug them. Since the flutes of the ribs are behind them I would be riveting from a flat skin, across a small air gap (maybe 1/8"), and into the curved part of the rib's flute. Since it's not a flat metal to metal contact and since the back side of the rivet might be at an angel depending where it lands on the flute, I was concerned about the rivet not staying tight and working itself loose over time. Should that be a concern? Am I being too much of a perfectionist?
OK, lets try an experiment. Take a couple of scraps of metal, drill a hole and pull a rivet in each - single skin, two skins, etc. Now, put it them all a plastic box and give a spin cycle in your washing machine - see if any of them come loose... I haven't tried it - but I would love to know what happens (we do all of our washing by hand here...) - please post pictures!!!!

It will answer questions the practical way....

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