Jeff:
I bonded my top on just 2 weeks ago, a word of caution do not put the top
on until you really have to. If you do it when the manual says all of the
subsequent operations will be very hard and inconvenient to do. Get all
your wiring, antennas, fuel lines, pumps, flap stuff, etc in first. About
the only thing I had to do in the back with the top on was the layups on
the baggage bay bulkhead, and that required some contortions. Having said
that one item that is critical is that you have the bottom of the fuselage
cradeled up so it is not twisted. I leveled the boat bottom at points
behind the fire wall, behind the cockpit module, and behind the rear
bulkhead. Using aluminum angle to create flats for the level that register
---From the joggle on the bottom fuselage half. If you look real close at the
dorsal area of the top of your fuselage you will see small tooling marks
(little x's scribed) evenly spaced on the spine. Crawl under your fuselage
bottom and you will see the same things on the belly. When you set the
fuselage halfs together drill a hole through one of the top tooling marks
and hang a plumb bob from it. You should line up or be very close to a
correponding tooling mark on the bottom.
You should see very faint trim lines etched on both the top and bottom
halfs. Shine a light obliquely to pick it up and highlight it with a pencil.
I used about 40 or 50 clecoes to hold the mess together, to avoid drilling
out rivets or messing with sheet metal screws. I put small washers on the
backside of these where there was access to get some good gripping force.
To make life easier however when the adhesive is partially set up take out
one cleco at a time clean the muck out of it with a wire wheel and put it
back in. It makes life so much easier when everything is set up and cured.
Steve Hagar
A143
Mesa, AZ
> [Original Message]
> From: Jeff Roberts <jeff@rmmm.net>
> To: <europa-list@matronics.com>
> Date: 3/23/03 2:38:10 PM
> Subject: Europa-List: Trim Line
>
>
> I am trying to fit the top fuselage to the bottom today. Can anyone
quickly
> tell me if the black marker line thats on the flange of the bottom half is
> the trim line? It dosen't say anything about this in the manual I have. I
> guess this is one of those things us first time builders are to know. Also
> any other advice on this process will be appreciated.
>
> Jeff
> A258
> Tri Gear
>
>
>
>
>
--- Steve Hagar
--- hagargs@earthlink.net
|