I had a short day to do some additional work and I couldn’t wait to finish up the right door. I tightened up the door hinge nuts inside of the overhead console. Because of the access panel and reduced space, I had to use a slightly shortened socket and do the work from the opposite side of the plane so I could see the nuts as I worked.
I reinstalled the gas door struts. I had to ream out the bolt holes in the struct brackets on the canopy and the door. I also had to slightly sand the inside of the brackets and adjust my washer sizes to fit the brackets. They have thickened slightly from the primer and paint process. I reinstalled the upgraded struts as my doors are a little heavier than stock with the door handle covers, center latch, insulation and eventual leather side panel. So I used some struts from Bansbach Easylift (part A1A1F50-100-287/600N) as they were half of what Van’s wanted for their heavy duty struts.
Once I got the strut in place and opened and closed the door I noticed some cracking along the side of the strut bracket on the canopy. I realized this is most likely because of the force of the strut is torquing the bracket as it opens and closes – as it is normally doing. But when I installed the bracket and finished the canopy, I only used high build primer along the side of the bracket here. It doesnt have the strength to resist this pressure. If I were to do it again, I would have applied Lord Epoxy inside of the bracket when it was first screwed into place and then fillet the side with it as well.
Since I can’t remove the bracket, I took some time to ponder how to address the issue. Later in the day I decided to try to improve the strength of the bracket as it attaches to the canopy. So I squeezed some lord epoxy into a micro syringe from West Systems and squeeze the epoxy back into the hallow area of the bracket against the canopy and filled the entire void. If that stops the flexing I can fix the surface crack. Otherwise I will have to look for something to address the crack. It’s purely a surface imperfection, so I’m not worried about the structural aspect.
I installed the after market McMaster-Carr door seal. I lined it up so that the seamed it directly behind the door strut bracket so it’s hard to tell where it ends. I closed the door and was happy to see that even with all the primer, paint and re-fit, everything seems to be lining up properly and fitting very well.
I installed the forward door pin guide in the fuselage. This is to help the door pins go into the fuselage holes and secure the door. It appears that something has slightly affected the dimensions here as the block appears to be slightly too low now. If I stress the door and push down as I rotate the angle, the door closes ok. If I removed the block, the extra push is not needed. So the fuselage hole is ok, it’s the location of the block.
I figure there’s a few things that could be looked at. The primer/paint on the door means the door is thicker where it connects to the door hinges, which means it will be sitting slightly higher than it was before. Doubtful it would be that much as I kept the primer very thin in the hinge area. It could also be the slight shift of the hinges as they are installed on the canopy. So I can try to loosen them up, shift the door, and then tighten again. If that doesn’t work I can slightly enlarge the screw holes for the pin block, shift it up slightly and the pins should work just fine.
I grabbed one of the leather samples from Oregon Aero and drapped it over the center arm rest to take a look at how it would look once it is covered. Looks nice!
Lastly I re-sanded the Aerosport screw buttons to a finer finish and re-glued to my paint board for more paint.
myrv10factory 