I am installing carbon fiber door sill caps from Aerosport Products. These are lightweight and should help protect the edge of the door sill. I aligned the doors and PlaneAround 3rd Latch with this in mind as this adds about… Read More »Carbon Fiber Door Sill Caps/Third Latch
I am installing door seals from McMaster-Carr (part number 1120A411), the PlaneAround third latch mechanism, and the PlaneAround angled door pins. This log entry details the prep work and fitting of these parts. I started by creating a 1/4″ gap… Read More »Door Seals and Latches
The copilot door fitting is going well so Amber and I decided to proceed with bonding the pilot door. We followed the same procedure as last time so there isn’t much more to say about it.
I had previously fitted and tested the door hardware and we were ready to bond the door halves. I decided to bond and fit the copilot door first to make sure there were no surprises before bonding the other door.… Read More »Copilot Door Bonding
I had a few final things left to do before bonding the door halves. First up was preparing the stiffeners for the door struts. I chose to alodine these for corrosion resistance. This gave me a raw metal surface to… Read More »Door Bonding Prep
The door pin guide blocks that come with the PlaneAround kit are larger than the Van’s blocks and include guide extensions for the pins. I shaped these on a belt sander to fit in the respective recesses. I positioned them… Read More »Door Blocks and Pins
As mentioned in my prior log entry, the alignment holes in the doors don’t align well with the fuselage (but they do align somewhat for the inner shell on the pilot door and for the outer shell on the copilot… Read More »Door Alignment