Patching holes, tears in skin

[bibbs]

I had a similar problem I made 2 large enough aluminum washers, and added a heavy gauge backing plate inside. Good quality sealant looks great like I’ve was built hat way!

[JDHinMaine]

You can get the stick on type reflectors in various sizes and shapes. Clean up area. Make the area flat as possible. I usually uses a better adhesive and apply them to the area. You may want to remove that one rivet. The adhesive will act as a water seal and should look like they belong there.

[Stargirl]

Hi all,

I've been reading through all these awesome posts about patching exterior holes and am confused on the order of sealing and riveting. Seems to me I:

1. get alclad aluminum for cutting the patches out of (6061-T6 or 2024-T3 at least .032" thick)
2. use tin snips to cut the desired shapes (stars of course!) making sure to not cut all the way until the snip ends meet to avoid curling/denting of the patch edge
3. file down the edges of the patch using...??? perhaps just a mill file? dremel?
4. slather up the area to be covered by the patch with vulkem or some polyurethane sealant
5. rivet the patch on over the sealant using Olympic rivets - or buck rivets? I have the entire thing gutted so I'm not limited to blind rivets. However, from posts I've read it seems buck rivets are necessary for structural support but perhaps not for simply covering an exterior hole (mine are all small)

Now the alternative is to seal the patch after it is riveted, and whether I would do this from the interior or exterior I don't know. Any and all input is appreciated

Thanks for the help!!