Door Frame Edges and Strut Bracket

A little more work on the doors and I'll be stopping for a while. I need to figure out some things on the exterior handles before I do all the finishing work.

I continued with what I could and that was thickening up the lip around the door frame edge. I used the Mcmaster Carr seal as a mold. I filled the seal up with epoxy/flox, tapped the seal into place with a rubber mallet, and then closed and latched the doors to let it dry. The next day things looked pretty good but the edges needed to be filled in a few areas and the entire process repeated in others where the epoxy door edge didn't make good contact. I also installed the planearound delrin pin guide blocks (sorry I don't have pics of that).

Here is detailed brake down of the tasks I completed
Sat 15th -4.5 hrs-

put seal back on RH Door frame

cleco RH door to fuselage

redrill holes for hinges as required

recountersink holes for hinges as required

screw door onto hinges

close door and test fit

work on gas strut bracket on both doors

install delrin guide blocks

find and mark thin areas of gutter for build up

mix epoxy and sqeeze into seal

close and latch doors while epoxy dries Sun 16th -2.0hrs- sand the door frame re-epoxy areas that didn't work first time later that day take the canopy off

Total Time on Doors

55.0

You can see the area where I had to build up the lip. The seal leave behind a nice ridged edge.

This is the wooden spacer I made to locate the door strut bracket.

More Overhead Console Work

OK, one more post before the end of the year.

I had a few consecutive days of work and then production came to a grinding halt for Xmas vacation. This time driving up to St. Louis for a week long visit. Drive? you ask. Why would we do a thing like that? Well, renting a plane for a week is not very practical. Its both difficult to book for an entire week and very...very expensive. Just another motivator to finish the plane.

I've still been working on the overhead console. Lots of fiberglass stuff. I don't mind fiberglass but I am ready to move on to some other part of the plane, whether it's fiberglass work or not.

Dates and Times
Tues 10 -1.5 hrs- sanded and added filler to overhead console edge

Wed 11 -1.5 hrs- sanded and cut one edge flange piece on overhead console

Thurs 12 -1.5 hrs- sanded and shaped more parts on cabin and overhead. Located holes for door bracket

Sat 28 -3.0 hrs- sanded and bonded edge flange

Sun 29 -4.5 hrs- more sanding. Cut and bonded edge flange on other side

Mon 30 -1.5 hrs- cut closeout panel openings and removed initial mold foam support

The initial layup forming the edge flange pieces.

I trimmed out a hole for the door strut bracket. Later I went back and did a lot of filler work including filling in around the cutout.

This is one of the internal pieces creating the shape of the forward part of the overhead. This gets bonded in and smoothed out later.

All the pieces on one side are trimmed and ready for final bonding to the substructure.

Both sides bonded into place along with a lot of filler work completed.

A view of the edge flange running along the side of the overhead. This will house an LED rope light to provide cabin lighting.

So far I'm pleased with how it's turning out. Next I need to make the closeout panels and then finish forming them into place. I also need to finish the forward edge where the support post attaches.

Cheers! 

&

Happy New Year!