Brief Description: Glued pilot door halves together
So today I assembled the pilot's side door. The strut brace was glued in previously, so I drilled out the #30 holes and put in the LP-4 rivets (in the co-pilot door as well). Then I cleaned the door opening and masked with packing tape and plastic. The latter was draped at the top and bottom to prevent drips from the door. The halves and parabeam was taken to Jack Keegan's hangar and we cleaned the halves and waxed clecos while we waited for Jim Mathewson, who had borrowed some of Jack's tools. When Jim arrived, I mixed up enough to wet the bonding areas and the parabeam. Jack did the parabeam while Jim and I did the door halves and then they placed the parabeam while I mixed up the bonding mixture. I used flox instead of cab-o-sil and split the batch so that we could all apply the bonding mixture at once. Once the bonding surfaces were 'buttered', Jack and Jim placed the door halves while I used the clecoes to align them. Then it was back to my hangar and the doors were installed, clecoed, and clamped in place, while any ooze (and there was plenty) was removed. The top of the door was out of reach for clamps but we used weights to hold everything down. As a final touch, even though all the primary oozing had been cleaned up, the plastic at the bottom was taped up as in image 2 in order to catch any dripping epoxy.
Rivet count: 16 Total: 15849 - Plus 549 done at Van's
