REFLECTOR: Nose Gear Doors

Thu Aug 22 15:08:56 CDT 2013

Since there's nothing attaching to the area in question, it's not really
structural. So milled fiber or flox would be overkill. You could do it
though.

I used epoxy and cabo to build up (extend) my door edges. Solid as a
rock... without any fliberglass backing.

On Thu, Aug 22, 2013 at 2:53 PM, Andrew Ellzey <ajlz72756 at yahoo.com> wrote:

> Somebody can correct me, if I am wrong, but cab o sil is only susposed to
> be used as a thinking agent, why don't you use milled glass fibers and
> structural epoxy. This mixture is then structural. Not just a non
> structural filler, unless that is what you are looking for, then you should
> again use structural or non structural epoxy, and mill glass beads, and
> then thicken it with cab o sil.
>
> Andy Ellzey
>
> Sent from my iPhone
>
> On Aug 22, 2013, at 5:07 PM, Clayton Chase <chasec at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> 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?
>
> <Nose Gear Door Gap Issue And Solutions.png>
>
>
> 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
>>
>
> _______________________________________________
> 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/20130822/4a115a22/attachment-0001.html>