Time: 12 Hours
One of the maintenance mods that I wanted to do involved the seat floors. The seat floors will get riveted permanently later in the build some builders have made the floors removable by adding a lot of nutplates where rivets would go. I did a lot of researching to decide if I wanted to go that route or not. What I decided was that all that extra work was not worth it for me. What I did decide to do was make to accres panels in the center section of the floors and copy my buddy Glen’s work. The center bay just aft of the passenger foot well is a perfect place to put the com antennas. These bays will and be a good spot to put wire terminal blocks for the wings so that removal of the wings(should that ever be required) will be a little easier when it comes to the wings wiring. I spent several hours just laying out the hole and measuring all the specs so that nothing was going to interfere with other parts. I used Glen’s photos to help give me an idea of how I wanted to lay it out. In this mod the hinge will sit a little proud of the floor as well as the CamLoc that I will use to secure the door but all of this will be covered with a carpet kit from Flight Line interiors.
The rest of the time I carefully measured and cut all the required pieces. I always struggle with this type of work as I have a hard time looking ahead several steps to see potential problems or issues. The only one I ended up having was an edge distance issue with the floor side hinge at both ends as I had forgot to add the 1/4″ lip to my rivet spacing. Not a big deal as the hinge is sandwiched between the floor and a piece of angle. I didn’t take a lot of pictures as I went but here are a few.
Over all I really pleased with how the hole and substructure for both sides came out.
I decided to stop with that work as all I have to do is make the doors and match drill the support angle holes that would have been there in the first place. I also received my heater valve from Aircraft Spruce on Friday and decided to put it into position. It comes with a heat temp sealant to put around the opening to prevent any leaking.
All in all a great weekend in the Hangar even though there wasn’t a whole lot to show for it. I used up all of my 3/4″ thin angle I had ordered from Van’s as I had a few bad cuts and wasted some of it. I will order more since I have anothe rear baggage mod to do as well as the oil can issue on the aft bottom fuselage that needs attention.