Phil,
I have built over 12 sets of doors. They all work using the current
manual. In my opinion doors come off because of improper latching or
due to a poor fitting door. I come from a family of contractors and
master craftsmen. I had a lot of experience with doors. No latch will
work until the door fits and operates correctly first. Here are some of
my techniques for you to consider when following the manual.
1. Make the door fit the rebate precisely. No bows at the bottom or
hard pushes to get them into the rebate.
As my friend Carl Reichle says "snick". I do heat the doors and massage
them into shape before doing any fitting of hardware.
2. Make everything in the mechanism work flawlessly smooth on the
bench. It takes time. Drill the 1/8 inch holes for keying in the
plate. The holes I do look like the manual and will be cleco alignment
holes later.
3. Install the mechanism in the door and relieve the inside of the door
glue until it is in tight. Even make a dimple for the weld points.
Make sure the handle is oriented parallel to the door bottom and all
clears. Draw a line on the door. (Measure the spot for the hole for
the handle and believe it or not I have always been within 1mm of that
point.) I use clecos to pull the steel up hard and make sure I have
plenty of the 5/8 tube sticking through the door which will allow the
outer handle to clear the glass latter on. Once it is perfectly
aligned, disassemble and Redux in the plate, install clecos through the
1/8 inch holes in the door and clean up the face well. If you are
worried about the handle alignment reinstall it, tweak it in place and
allow to cure.
4. Make your rods at this time but make them long and only finish the
inner ends of the door bars or rods using either the round stock or flat
bar, your choice. Personally I make the ends of the round rods with a
longer flat than called for for later trimming.
5. Lay the rods on the outside of the door in the latched position and
look how the rods lay on the outside of the door. Bend the rods to the
door shape and bend the ends to be aligned with the door side and handle
mechanism. Rough cut the holes in the door where the manual says for
the guides but don't glue them yet.
6. Install the rods with 525 10R8 bolts instead of roll pins ( I make a
modified 525 10R10 with a button head and shorten the threads to fit in
for the final) and ensure they work flawlessly through their rough
holes, check the rods are bent and they do not rub against the inside of
the door or bind against the mechanism. The rod ends need to exit
aligned perpendicular to the door and parallel to its bottom. Then
insert the guide and check again. Hopefully a little of the bar will be
sticking out.
7. Set the guides in and check that the door will fit the rebate with
the guide in. Some doors need a little rebate cut in for the flange to
fit perfectly. A dremel tool with a 1/2 inch Permagrit barrel works
best for this. Make sure the alignment is dead square. If you want,
now tack with 5 min or superglue the guide. When you fit the door in
the rebate, you will see that the door guide in the fuselage needs to be
rebated in to be aligned perfectly level and square with the door guide.
Important: Your rod length and door shoot bolt length aren't fixed yet.
The latch depends on how the door fits. How tight the distance is
between the door guide and the fuselage guide.
8. With the door guides tacked in, now put your shoot bolt on the rod
end and mark the end of the rod where the end of the shoot bolt would be
even with the outer end of the guide. Once this length is marked,
disassemble and lay the shoot bolt against the rod and figure where to
drill the hole to fix the shoot bolt to the rod. This method will
insure the shoot bolt is extended to the maximum possible when the latch
is in the closed position. Most of the time I get 1/2 of an inch. No
less than 3/8 please.
9. Now reinstall the rod and shoot bolt. Trim the rod end with a file
until its motion in the guide clears. How I do this is I take the rod
and shoot bolt assembly and deflect the shoot bolt until the end of the
rod sticks up above the shoot bolt. I use my burnishing wheel but a
file will take care of the high spot where it will bind. Then I take a
dremel with a cutoff wheel and grind the ends of the roll pin down until
it all slides through the guide "snick".
10. Now crack the guide free and assemble the rods into the door and
glue in the guides in absolutely perpendicular to the ends of the doors
and straight. Use a straight bar along the door to make sure of
alignment. Let cure.
Now I install the door and hinges per the manual using the supplied
items. If the door ever opens I want it gone without tearing up the
plane. Check the hinge area in the plane is not thin. Some planes only
had a couple plies by mistake. Add only if you can see through the
glass/gelcoat and there is only two layers. A flashlight is all that's
needed.
When the door is hinged, then I set my shoot bolt guides per the manual.
Once the hole in the fuselage is just the size of the bolt, I open it
up for the guide. I set the distance between the guides by using a thin
AN960 8-16L 1/2 inch washer for clearance between the two guides. I
operate the door mechanism until alignment is perfect. Rebate the
fuselage as required. Yes I have the two shoot bolt guides very close
to one another. But the door is fit so well that it falls into the
small slot. It helps when closing the door, because if the door is
being bent during closure, it is obvious if the door hits the shoot bolt
guide. But I do cheat and add redux around the flange to make a smooth
transition that is pleasing to the eye.
Now when it cures the door handle should thunk by its spring alone to
the fully locked position. You will have 1/2 inch of guide sticking
into the fuselage. The only force necessary to close the door will be
slight downward pressure to compress the door seal.
It takes 40 hours to do nice doors...It's an airplane. Doors and
canopies are a tough job, but it is the part that gets used over and
over.
I have never had my shirt sleeve pulled, a door bulged or feared one of
my installations. It just takes time. I have added microswitches to
contact the door bolts when in the closed position, or made a hole in
the upholstery so one can visually see the bolt installed. Your choice.
Hope this didn't put you to sleep or confuse you. Call if you need
clarification.
Bud Yerly
CFC/Europa
----- Original Message -----
From: flyingphil2<mailto:ptiller@lolacars.com>
To: europa-list@matronics.com<mailto:europa-list@matronics.com>
Sent: Monday, January 18, 2010 6:12 AM
Subject: Europa-List: Re: Shoot bolts
<ptiller@lolacars.com<mailto:ptiller@lolacars.com>>
Hi,
My kit has an XS fuselage but I have all the parts to make it up to
the current production spec (ie flat bar etc) and also have been fitting
the cockpit width mod. Regardless of all that, I guess the length of
protrusion of the shoot bolts would remain the same across all aircraft.
I guess my question is 'what is safe' as I know several doors have been
lost in the past due to the bolts not closing securely.
Regards,
Phil
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