One thing I really debated on was the area underneath the two doors. The question is: Fabric or AL?” I was planning on fabric, but the more I thought about it I decided to make aluminum panels. I went through a LOT of work to make the other panels in the boot cowl removable for maintenance, so why not this area? It’s not unheard of. There are a few Bearhawks out there with this feature and from a durability aspect I think it’s a go. I first made poster board templates, then comes the question how to attach them? I decided on nutplates and moving the door threshold out a bit to make an easy place to put nutplates. The thresholds were angled in a bit so as not to interfere with the placement of fabric. I carefully cut, reshaped and welded the thresholds at an angle so the AL would lay flat against them.
