This spinner belongs to a friend who owns and flies a T-6G and accidentally dropped the spinner which landed directly on the point, of course. This spinner was actually made from a sheet, rolled and has one weld seam. It is chrome plated. It was only about .020" thick material.
So, my approach was to make a form of the inside of the spinner. To do this I filled it with fiberglass resin with a 1" stake in it to fit my stand. This gave me the actual profile of the back side of the dent.
I then body worked the dent with bondo to make the form smooth and represent the inside of the spinner without the dent. Turning the spinner over and using my shot bag and fingers only, started coaxing the dent back to where the metal really "wanted" to be. Once I got some of the major dent moving, I put the spinner on the form. I then spent nearly 12 hours (not all at once...) using only my hands and cotton gloves slapping, pushing and gently working the thin material back in shape. It really taught me how the form already had a memory and didn't like being out of position. Spinning on the form slowly and just flat palm hammering got the shape back with no damage to the chrome, a testament to the ability of the plater.
06-21-2014, 07:43 PM
North American T6 Prop Spinner Repair
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