FAA Maintenance Alert

Mooney: M20J; Corroded Cowling Rivets; ATA 7110
A technician for a repair station wrote, “The owner brought (his aircraft’s) cowlings in for repair because the through-skin rivets were corroding and shearing off at the manufacturer’s-head as exhibited by blistering paint at the rivet locations. Inspection revealed most of the AD (composition code 2117) rivets were severely corroded because the cowlings are constructed with a hybrid composite laminate of e-glass and carbon graphite plies. It is standard industry practice to use corrosion resistant fasteners such as Monel rivets through carbon graphite structure — it is unknown why aluminum rivets are used in this case.” (No part numbers were provided with this submission.) More