REFLECTOR: Nose Gear Doors

[Clayton Chase]

I'm having the same problem Paul is only in my case it's because I can't
cut straight, not that the factory made the hole wrong.  I've made a
picture that shows the situation perhaps a little more clearly.

I was thinking that since the cab-o-sil is not very thick and is already
backed by the flange fiberglass it would be strong enough on its own.
Does anyone have any opinions on this?

[image: Inline image 1]


On Wed, Aug 21, 2013 at 7:28 PM, Paul Folkes <ausvelocity at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi Bob,
>
> thanks.  I did something similar to get the bend in the doors to match the
> contour of the fuselage, which is now good.  My problem is uneven gaps
> between the door edges and the edges of the hole, because the hole is not
> square.
>
> Paul Folkes
> XLRG
> VH-VVX
> *building but a looooong way to go.*
>
>
>
> On 22 August 2013 12:04, Bob Jackson (Jax Tech) <bobj at jaxtechllc.com>wrote:
>
>> **
>>
>> Paul,****
>>
>> ** **
>>
>> An alternative to filling the gaps is to bend the doors to fit the
>> fuselage opening.  When we first fit our gull wing doors to the fuselage,
>> the doors on both sides did not follow the exact contour of the fuselage,
>> and the bottom corners of the door stuck out and in ~1/2" from the fuselage
>> surface.****
>>
>> ** **
>>
>> We had great success in building a 'jig' involving 3/8" threaded rods,
>> threaded through temporary holes cut into the door beams, and through 2x4's
>> temporarily fixed to the insides and outsides of the fuselage for
>> leverage.  By turning nuts on the threaded rod we could 'spring' the doors
>> into proper alignment.  The next step then was to heat the door (multiple
>> hot air guns and heat lamps until the door fiberglass was almost too hot to
>> touch) so that the epoxy would 'flow' slightly and the door would bend
>> slightly and assume the new desired shape that was flush with the fuselage
>> skin.****
>>
>> ** **
>>
>> I think you only can do this 'trick' a few times before the epoxy begins
>> to 'work harden' and will no longer re-flow and bend.  We learned
>> trial-and-error that we needed to 'over-spring' the bending corrections
>> (e.g., if we needed to move the door in 1/2", then using the nuts on the
>> threaded rod actually bend it in 1" while heating it up).  Once we heated
>> it up with something like twice the correction needed, once it cooled down
>> after a few hours and we removed the rig, the door would loose about half
>> of the correction and spring back to 'about right'.  One or two cycles of
>> this and our doors now fit perfectly!****
>>
>> ** **
>>
>> This doesn't seem to be a technique that too many people know about, but
>> it worked great for us and I think it should also work on you nose gear
>> doors.****
>>
>> Good luck!****
>>
>> ** **
>>
>> Bob Jackson****
>>
>> Turbo-Cross Country Velocity XL-RG****
>>
>> N2XF****
>>
>> ** **
>>  ------------------------------
>>
>> *From:* reflector-bounces at tvbf.org [mailto:reflector-bounces at tvbf.org] *On
>> Behalf Of *Paul Folkes
>> *Sent:* Wednesday, August 21, 2013 8:36 PM
>> *To:* **Velocity Aircraft Owners and Builders list**
>> *Subject:* REFLECTOR: Nose Gear Doors****
>>
>> ** **
>>
>> Hi all,****
>>
>> ** **
>>
>> I'm looking for some advice from the collective wisdom.  I am working on
>> the nose gear doors.  I have an older, fast-build kit and have to make my
>> own flange (no problem there). My problem is the hole cut out by the
>> factory is not square and there are a few dings and chips from moves from
>> garage to garage to hangar by the previous owner. This all means that there
>> are some uneven and quite large (up to 1/4 inch) gaps around the
>> pre-moulded doors that I need to fill and reshape to get the hole square
>> with nice straight edges.  What is the best process and material for this?
>>  I am thinking to cover the door piece in duct tape or saran wrap and hot
>> glue or bondo it into place, wipe cabosil into the gaps around the door,
>> and then sand square when cured.  Any comments, please?****
>>
>> ** **
>>
>> Thanks,****
>>
>> ** **
>>
>> Paul Folkes****
>>
>> XLRG****
>>
>> VH-VVX****
>>
>> *building but a looooong way to go.*****
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> To change your email address, visit
>> http://www.tvbf.org/mailman/listinfo/reflector
>>
>> Visit the gallery!  www.tvbf.org/gallery
>> user:pw = tvbf:jamaicangoose
>> Check new archives: www.tvbf.org/pipermail
>> Check old archives: http://www.tvbf.org/archives/velocity/maillist.html
>>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> To change your email address, visit
> http://www.tvbf.org/mailman/listinfo/reflector
>
> Visit the gallery!  www.tvbf.org/gallery
> user:pw = tvbf:jamaicangoose
> Check new archives: www.tvbf.org/pipermail
> Check old archives: http://www.tvbf.org/archives/velocity/maillist.html
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://www.tvbf.org/mailman/private/reflector/attachments/20130822/5483583c/attachment-0001.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: Nose Gear Door Gap Issue And Solutions.png
Type: image/png
Size: 50631 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://www.tvbf.org/mailman/private/reflector/attachments/20130822/5483583c/attachment-0001.png>