Tom Porta mentioned that a lot of the exhaust air ramps, including his, crack from fatigue. He recommended adding a doubler to the mid section support to carry it through to the side stiffeners.
Charles took on this project. He started by drilling out the rivets and removing the piano hinge securing the ramp to the fuselage. He then fabricated a part and riveted it to the side member. He decided to make an "improvement" to the design to improve the laminar flow of the cooling air exiting the cowling. He decided that '470 round head rivets would work much better than 426 rivets by acting as mini vortex generators. We shall see!
