With the doors in place, the steel receptacle sleeves that will accept the door pins were positioned with wooden spacers, filleted in place with micro, and covered with BID.
The carbon fiber structural members that fit around the doors and across the ceiling were sanded to fit the inner surface of the fuselage. The seat belt hard points mounts were fabricated from wood shaped to fit inside the carbon beam.
The pads on the inside of the fuselage were cut and shaped to accept the door hinges so that the doors fit reasonable well. Once in fit, the fuselage was match drilled, the hinges were tapped, and the top hinges were glued in place with a thin plastic tape release.
What a pain in the ass. The doors do not have the same shape as the fuselage, so they have to be “coaxed” into shape with force and heat, applied over a long period of time. I used all-thread rods to pull the doors in some places, and 1×1 dowels to push in other places, all while keeping the doors toasty hot with halogen lamps. Crude, and not very effective.
The door flange was trimmed to a uniform size along the door perimeter.
The door hinges were constrained to be parallel with an aluminum angle, and were bonded to the door tabs. The tabs were drilled to match the hinges, and then the hinges were tapped. The door tabs were countersunk for the screws, and then the hinges were bonded with cabo, pulled flush with the screws, and covered with BID.
The foam was dug out from between the fuselage halves and filled with micro, followed by a 2xBID tape to fillet the door flange to the fuselage.
The cowling top half was cut at the proper distance from the firewall, with hot glue retainers added to keep it in place as the cut progressed. The inner surface next to the firewall was then protected with duct tape, and a wet tape was used to make a flange. After curing, the fuselage and flange were drilled for clecoes, the cowling was removed, and sanded to clean up.
The door cutouts were hot-glued back in place after covering their inside surfaces with duct tape. Layup tape was then used to create an inner door flange.
Using the supplied templates, the door openings were cut out the fuselage to fit the doors. This was an iterative process because the templates (flat) will not conform properly to the fuselage (compound curvature).
Using the canard template, the canard doghouse was cut out flush with the top of the canard bulkhead.
Side window mating faces were ground, and side windows were glued in place. MLG legs were reinstalled and over center linkage was installed and gear pockets were adjusted so that legs were spaced evenly with centerline. Cabo was filleted around gear sockets to adhere them to the gear pockets. The door latching mechanisms were installed in both the pilot and copilot doors.
Piling stuff into the fuselage for shipment to Georgetown!
Built door latch bushings from parts. Used hinge guide tool to register hinges in the right location on the doors. Some grinding of door flat was necessary to fit hinges. Drilled door, then drilled and tapped hinges, securing hinge to door.
Outer edge of windshield was ground down about 1/16″ in mating area to make its surface flush with outer fuselage skin. Windshield mounted in upper fuselage and glued into place with alphapoxy and micro. Clamped by inserting wooden wedges into foam.
bzvelocity.com 