Wow, today was a day full of lots of different projects. Finishing the door interiors takes time between coats of the primer so that leaves plenty of time to get to other items needing attention. Today I started with figuring out what I am going to do for the door locks. I am going to use the old locations I had that previously busted my door locks if a LOT of pressure was applied to force the door open. I believe these new locks are stronger and wont suffer the same fate. In addition if anyone wants to get into the plane that bad, I’d rather have the locks break then have them break something major to get into the plane.
So luckily I hadn’t thrown away (well I did, but I found them) the old reinforcement plates I had previously removed from the right door. I mixed up some flox and pop riveted it back into place. In addition I took the wood washer which has the unique shape of the lock cylinder (supplied by the lock maker) and floxed that into place to help reinforcement the lock and prevent it from rotating in the door.
Next I moved onto finish the sanding of the primer layer I had started yesterday. I am still using 100 grit at this point due to the large build up I need to cover the pinholes and defects in the door shell. Once it was sanded down I mixed up some more high build primer and loaded it into the HVLP gun. Using a brush leaves a lot of runs and “veins”, so shooting it creates a smoother coat as the process continues. I did overshoot a few areas so I could saturate them with primer and get some voids filled – this of course creates some runs/veins. At this point, it has to sit to dry enough for further sanding.
I turned to the fuselage itself and filled in the last of the unriveted skin holes. These were around the door jam and were originally left open. These holes were used to cleco the door pieces together as they were glued together in place with epoxy. These holes are no longer needed for this purpose, so they could be closed up.
I then repainted the rear passenger footwell kick plate I had from yesterday. I previously sanded down the blemish and today I reapplied paint with the HVLP. It turned out great and you would never know there was a blemish originally.
I took the inspection panels I had been painting the last few days and got busy installing them. As I installed each panel I briefly sanded them with some wet 2000 grit sandpaper. This removes and small texture from the painting and leaves them silky smooth. My plan is to install the panels only in places that wont need access for the majority of the remaining build. Some of these panels are strictly for future maintenance and inspection so the need to get into them for now is minimal. I also decided that any inspection panel that was non-structural related would be installed using Stainless Steel screws with Torx or Square Lobe heads. I got these from MicroFasteners.com. I ordered #6 and #8 screws in both countersunk and button-head style. This cuts down on the number of screws that are striped – which happens a lot with the standard screws. The panels that are related to structural strength get the standard AN style hardware.
I installed the forward tunnel inspection panel from Airward. This will enable future access and inspection to the fuel boost pump, fuel selector and other hardware in the tunnel for maintenance. This was installed with Stainless hardware. I then installed the baggage floor inspection cover. I deemed this a structural member and used standard AN hardware to install it.
Next were the inspection covers over the bolts for the steps just aft of the wing. These steps are used to get into and out of the plane and have sometimes been known to come loose. So these panels will enable access to the bolt for inspection and re-torquing if needed. I used Stainless hardware for these non-structural panels.
I installed the forward inspection panels behind the rudder pedals. These cover one of the engine mount bolts in the forward most corner of each side of the firewall. These were installed with Stainless hardware as well. The forward portion of the tunnel cover was installed. This piece had previously been cut from the longer tunnel cover to accomodate the Control Approach rudder pedals. These pedals connect to the rudder cables inside the tunnel so the cover has to be modified to fit. This piece will likely come off in the future to allow some SCAT tubes to be connected to the heater boxes, but this was a good chance to make sure it fit and the nutplates were all working properly.
Next up was the forward inspection panel under each of the front seats. These two plates close out the “box” that the pilot and front passengers sit on top of. It’s a difficult piece to get into place. I used some blue painters tape and masked off the surrouding area to protect the somewhat fresh paint from scratching during the assembly. The piece has a cutout to go around the landing gear arm, but it’s still really a tight fit. The piece that goes around the arm wound up slightly bent, but it’s not an issue. Next time I will just trim this a little before I install this panel.
I installed the rear passenger kick plate on the right side. I didn’t do the left side as I had just finished painting it and wanted it to cure more. I also know that I will need to run some wiring behind the left kickplate in the future so I won’t install it for a while.
It was then time to work on outfitting the overhead console. Since the insert panels were painted and cured. I installed the rear passenger overhead lights. These are tough controls with built in dimmer. I will need to access these in the future to finish wiring them up. But I wanted to verify the fit and the nutplates/hardware in the overhead. Besides, I wanted to see the cool overhead completely set up. I used Stainless hardware here as they are non-structural. I installed the LED dome light in the larger panel and installed it with Stainless hardware as well. I still need to add a small switch/button to the panel to control this light for entry and egress. Looks cool eh?
I took the thumb control lever from the interior door handle and sprayed a few coats of red enamel paint on it. The squarish looking end still protrude through the handle and be visible, so that is the only part I really care about being red. It will make it easier to identify the button to push to move the handle.
At last enough time had passed and I returned to the right door and gave it another sanding and shot of primer from the HVLP. I manually touched up a few areas that were still showing pinholes.
I’ve been thinking about the window installation coming up. My plan is to use Lord Epoxy 7585 which is a two part epoxy. It comes highly recommended and cleans up with a compond that doesn’t destroy or damage the plastic windows either. It is also easy to create a fillet around the interior of the window with it as well. The downside is it is a creamy color. I would really like a black color to belnd in with the window “Treatment” on the inside as well as the future paint So I had the idea to try some of the pigment I had gotten from Tap Plastics. This is used to dye epoxy so that when the front window is installed, the fiberglass is black rather than the clearish color. So I thought I could use this with the lord epoxy. I squeezed some of the epoxy into a cup and mixed the two parts. Then I added a small amount of the pigment and it did indeed turn black. It’s a really dark grey – almost the color of Proseal, but again, it can be cleaned up without affecting the window. Proseal would be a good choice, but cleans up with Acetone or MEK which will craze the window.
I let the mixture flash and it did indeed harden in the same amount of time. I will check tomorrow to make sure it achieved a full cure. If so, I have my likely solution for my window trim.
I turned to the left door since the right door was still drying. I removed the gas strut and pop-riveted the attach brackets. I removed the door handle and the old broken lock cylinder. As you can see in the pictures, the rotation of the lock snapped the cylinder right off. I created some covers for the hinge areas – much faster the second time around (seems to be the case with this plane). Iixed up some flox and covered the pin blocks and the center latch assembly as well as applying some fiberglass and epoxy over some of the smaller assembly holes. I then mixed up some Light Weight Filler and epoxy and slathered up the pin blocks (they had already flashed) the center latch, the hinge covers and the struct attach brackets.
Lastly I experimental with some potted nuts. I am going to use these to install the Rosen Visors in the canopy cover. When I was covering the forward support beam I enclosed some foam and glassed over the area. I also created some epoxy hard points and the plan is to drill holes and use flox to secure these potted nuts in place. The visors would then be mounted by screwing into these pots. I like this better as the stock install has you drill through the door jam and leave the screw exposed on the exterior. My method should be a lot cleaner.
I’ve never used some of these counter boring bits I was given, so I took some measurements and grabbed a scrap of wood. I figured out what size drill bit to use as a pilot hole and then use a flat boring bit to create a flat bottomed hole. This allows the nut to sit flush with the surface. I marked the bits for the appropriate depth and will have to wait until tomorrow to give it a go. The difficult part is while I marked where the hard points in the canopy are, I can no longer find my markings under the grey primer I sprayed on the outside of the canopy. So I will have to do some measurements tomorrow to find them.
myrv10factory 