Brief Description: Rivit on the upper cowl top hinges and lots of fit
Removed every other cleco on top cowl top hinges that were epoxied yesterday. Rand 40 drill thru each hole to clear epoxy from holes Counter sink each hole for flush rivit Rivit each with half squeeze Removed other clecos and repeat process
Went back to do final squeeze on each rivit and discovered a big problem.... The rivits used were 4.5 length as per plans but did not compensate for the shims being used!! Had I squeezed fully and checked with first rivit like I normally do, I would have discovered then. But I was trying to not warp the aluminum hinge and... Anyway I drilled out aprox 48 rivits!!! No make more difficult, I didnt have enough of the dash 5 rivits that work. So I used dash 6 rivits and cut off 1/16 inch from each with a rivit cutter that I though I needed but hav not used until now some 3 years later!
Reset all the rivits in the hinge
Test fit upper cowl back to lower on plane and guess what?? Problem #2!! It does not fit So I spent long time filing each eyelet on cowl and firewall hoping to relieve tension and this helped but not enough. So I decided to remake a firewall side hinge down by oil door and try to fit in place. Hope is that will allow for a looser fit. I cut a piece of hinge and bent to basic shape. Will need to bevel eyelets on it as before and then install with hinge pin thru the oil door and then drill in place. Hope that works.
Problem#3- The hinge pins for the cowl halves left and right wont go in. After researching what could be the problem, I discovered that some epoxy had seeped along the edge of cowl and the lip of hinge enough to hinder the other hinge from bottom cowl to line up evenly. Dang Epoxy!! Im not so sure this epoxy on hinges was a good idea. I cleared the epoxy with drimel and small grind stone best I could. reattached the cowl and tried again. I can get the pins in now by hand but still real tight. Need to work it some more.
Hope tomorrow solves the above problems and forward movement can begin again
Upper cowl top hinge rivited on and extra holes filled
Used a rivit gauge to get a Dash 5 length rivit. Not sure why this tool goes in 1/16 inc from 4.5
