Door Lights

I wanted to have some lights that shined on the wings when the doors opened. The gull wing doors provide a perfect spot to install some small LED lights that turn on when the doors open and thus shine down illuminating the wing walk and step. It's been a chore finding all the parts to install these and coming up with how to install them. I think I've got a good plan now, but it's going to be completed over several sporadic steps along this build. Sorry I can't sum the install up into a single post, if I remember when these are finally installed I'll link back to this post.

Date and Time

Mon 21st -1.5hrs- Installed LED light on door

I had planned on doing these since I started building the plane, but I was so excited to glue the two door halves together that I forgot to run the wire. This would have been much easier to do before gluing the door halves together. So I had to improvise; I drilled my wire exit hole near the hinge and the wire entrance hole near the bottom where I wanted to install the light. I used a straightened hanger to push through the door starting at the top hole near the hinge and another small piece to hook the end of the hanger and line it up with the lower hole. Before pushing the hanger through I smoothed out and rounded the end to minimize it tearing through the internal sound proofing. 

I then taped the wire to the end of the hanger and pulled the wire through the door. The wire will later get a connector, shrink tubing, and sealed. 

I then used the light as a drill guide. Making sure the light covered the wire entrance hole I drilled two #30 holes and used two blind rivets to install it. The rivets shown below worked really well. The head slid down into the recessed hole of the light and were the correct length to secure the light. I really lucked out because it just so happened I had four of these laying around. 

 

I set the door in place to see what it will look like. I like it. Eventually I'll scuff and paint the light the same color as the door. That should give it a real finished look.