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Kurt Haller RV-9A
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Date:  12-12-2015
Number of Hours:  0.00
Manual Reference:  
Brief Description:  Oil door latch

This entry written 29 August 2016. Hours not tracked.

I wanted a slick flush mounted latch for the top cowl oil dipstick door. But I didn't care for the spendy price, The Hartwell H5000-2 is $188 new at ACS, $48 for a surplus part. Saw what I thought was a comparable latch advertised for $20 on e-Bay. It's a Hartwell--the real deal. What a steal!

Turned out the latch was, ahem, a bit beefier than is really called for. Might have come off a B52--who knows? Well, I'm not going to put a bunch of carpet and side panels in this bird, so I'll burn up some of the weight savings with cool gadgets like this.

Taking a tip from Bruce Hill's web site, I saved the cutout from the top cowl stiffen up the separate oil door part Van's supplies. Almost half of it had to be cut out for the latch! The straight row of clecoes at the top of the door is for the hidden hinge. The other #40 clecos will serve to clamp the pink and green fiberglass parts together when I epoxy them together, Once cured, the holes will be filled and wah-lah, smooth door again.

After scratching my head about a four flush fasteners for the latch in the thin green skin, I decided to bond the latch frame to the 'glass with flox. The moving parts and springs of the mechanism could be disassembled, then reassembled once the frame is affixed to the door.
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Trial fit of door, hidden hinge, and latch

Trial fit of door, hidden hinge, and latch

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The red color on the closing arm reminds you the door isn't secured, I guess....

The red color on the closing arm reminds you the door isn't secured, I guess....

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Rear view.

Rear view.

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