Brief Description: Fitting of hinges against canopy stiffener
In order to accurately locate holes for nut plates, hinges had to be be assembled. There are rebated areas in inner stiffener that help locate hinges properly. Unfortunately, some additional grinding had to be done on both, hinge plates and fiberglass land areas in order to accomplish perfect fit. Once this was done, hinges were clamped in place and holes drilled through.
Instead of installing nut plates directly to the stiffener, they were riveted to two shims made up from solid laminate stock (see picture 3). Holes made in stiffener were transfered to shims and once everything was lined up, riveted and proven to work well, Jeffco resin and flox mixture was applied to shim and stiffener contact surfaces. Hinges were installed to hold nut plates and shims in place during cure. Offcourse, bolts were dipped in wax to prevent accidental bonding to nut plates.
