Door mod progress

Working on various door mods - those do take so much time :)

I trimmed the cabin cover door flanges for the McMaster Seal to fit (I settled on the 1120A311) so that it sits at the right distance and roughly its width from the edge of the door:

Closed door with the McMaster seal in place

Seal edge distance markings on the door

Seal edge distance markings on the door

I also riveted the door reinforcement plate nutplates:

Door reinforcement plates with nutplates riveted on

The door pin blocks required some trimming to fit, and then I had to trim the cabin cover flange a bit for them to go in, as well:

Door pin block after trimming the outboard side

Door pin block fitting snuggly against the door

Slot carved out on cabin cover to fit door pin block

Slot carved out on cabin cover to fit door pin block

Door pin block fitting just right into its slot, with the door latched

I got to the point where the blocks fit and keep the door in just the right place, but the slot I trimmed into the cabin cover was not enough to keep them flat - there was still a bit of a gap on the outboard side, which would make it hard to match-drill the block holes at the correct angle. I didn't want to trim the block or the cabin cover more as that'd introduce play, so I filled  that with resin instead, and closed the door with it in place:

Cabin cover pin block slot full of wet resin

Pin block full of wet resin (after wax release was applied to it)

The result was of course a bit messy (expected), so after match-drilling its holes, I trimmed off the excess with the Dremel:

Door pin block match-drilled and bolted in place

Resin remains after match-drilling door pin block

Trimmed resin remains from door pin block slot

I then attached the door pins - pretty easy to do, I started by trimming the pushrod to 13/32" inside of flush with its locked position, and that was pretty close to the final position, except for the clocking which required a lot of slow iteration:

Trimming latch pushrod for pin

Pin attached to pushrod and clocked properly

Pin in place with correct clocking and Delrin block

Pin going through fuselage with the door locked

With the blocks and pins, the doors now latch very easily.

Finally, I trimmed the center latch blocks a bit so they'd be flush with the cabin cover door flange - I could use that spacing for the seal, but I'd rather have a larger contact surface against the block, and trim the seal later instead:

Trimmed center latch block

Center latch sitting flush against cabin cover flange

I'll wait to actually drill those blocks' holes into the deck until the cabin cover surface is finished so they remain flush.

With the whole latch mechanism done, I can go back to the main parts of finishing up the doors.

Time lapse:


Total cabin door rivets: 72
Total cabin door time: 132.2h

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