Time: 4 Hours
I spent a couple hours this morning finishing up all the little tasks on the mod. I finished up the work on the notch on the top and deburred all the holes. I did decide to go with 3 CamLocs rather than the 4 I originally drilled for. I didn’t like the way the panel sat when I put pressure in the 4 spots I had, mainly the top corners. So I moved one to each corner and one dead center at the top. I had only drilled the rivet holes for the 4 so I will just dimple those and put a rivet in them, they will be covered up by the panel and will just add to the strength of the doubler. Once I drilled the new rivets for the CamLocs I used a #21 bit to drill down through the CamLoc main hole and into the doubler, upper bulkhead and the panel door. This allowed my to keep all the holes aligned. I then used my unibit to enlarge the door holes to 1/4″ and the bulkhead/doubler to 3/8″. The CamLoc stud won’t fit through the 1/4″ without compressing it. I bought a special pair of pliers just for this job. You can the rock the stud into place and release the pliers and it will stay in place. I will also add some retaining star washers that will hold the stud firmly in place so it won’t wobble around.
I then checko’ed the hinge and the platenut the will hold the hinge pin in place. I used the 3 CamLocs to hold the top of the door in place for now. I still have other work to do before I can prime and rivet these parts. All in all a fun project making a mod that will be really helpful down the road.
With all the paint on the gear towers curing and this mod done I decided to stop the work for the upcoming Labor Day weekend. When I get home from the ling weekend I will finish up the tower riveting so I can start on the forward baggage area. Have a great holiday weekend!
