Fuselage Structural Work
Start Skylight & Door Frames Hatshelf Fuselage rotating jig Welding & beadblasting Assembly Painting Trim Floorboards
Start: November 2001. Aircraft taken out of the air.
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Removal of the fabric whilst she is still in one piece allows photos of general assembly methods, cable routings and some details to be pictured. This should hopefully assist in the putting-back-together stage! Inside WWII T2 hangar at EGBG. | ||
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A little more light is required for some photos, so we drag her out for her last look at blue skies for a while. Will those rib cap strips support flight?...perhaps only at Mach 1! | |
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Our group member, John Heard, bless 'im, provided free transport to my house for the major components. That's me on the right. Andy Duke on the left. John gets the free advertising in exchange. | |
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Ensconced in my garage, 8' wide, 32' long; a tight squeeze. Firewall removed from cowl, cleaned up & Cleco'd back on to renew rivets. 1kW of lighting! | |
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Fuselage condition OK, no major corrosion found, but much previous repair work identified, and a few tubes need straightening. | ||
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New fairleads (10 required), use one of the original wire clips to hold it in place. 51/64" outside diameter provides a nice snug fit. | |
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.....and here are the finished articles. | |
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New door hinges are made to weld on to the steel tube. Previously they were screwed to the wooden frame, but I thought I'd revert to the better design seen in earlier (pre-1946) models. No "wobble" or movement on the door now! |
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Ragged edges of
plexiglass is the protective covering film. Plastic clamps in the last picture are
useful for trial fitting of glazing. Black cable ties are to hold the wood down
temporarily. The wood is all screwed on, it will also be fabricked to the tubing.
All screws are stainless, and reinforced using stainless countersunk washers to
prevent squashing of the wood. Now the wood can be varnished and put away till the fuselage is blasted and painted. The 51/64" diameter steel mandrel through the starboard aft fairlead is to repair the shape of the fairlead housing immediately forward of it; it got damaged on removal of the aileron cable. |
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Some more views of
additional work required on the skylight woodwork. Upper pictures: The plywood
former sandwiches some balsa wood spacers between it and the wing root woodwork to
maintain a pleasing line where the skylight joins the wing root. Balsa is to reduce
squishing when the whole lot is covered in fabric. The two lower pictures, facing forward, show the new rear skylight fairing and two new brackets to hold the top fuselage stringers aft of the skylight. Note I have installed slots in the wood in case in the future we wish to attach our shoulder harnesses here. |
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A third view, facing aft, showing one of the additional new tabs welded forward of the rear spar carry-through tube. This and the L-shaped bracket above are duplicates of what was on the front spar carry-through tube, and in total they support the new rear skylight fairing (shown). The block in the bottom left hand corner is a wooden spacer between the outer former of the wing-root wooden fairing and the inner plywood (not attached in the photo). |
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All the woodwork in, now. Here I'm tapping out the varnish residue from the threaded inserts that will hold the skylight down. |
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Time now to varnish all my new door frames, etc. Use a pipe cleaner dunked in varnish to get it down the numerous holes. Metal mesh holds the paper down; I will later be using this mesh as a screen for small parts spraying. Recycle! |
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New hat shelf has a trial fit. Two pieces, to be reinforced with light stringers to minimise drumming. At the left and right upper extremities of the back piece are new, welded fittings for the shoulder harnesses. |
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Hatshelf detail |
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The varnished frames, painted D windows, hat shelf. Some of the fairing pieces are held on temporarily with black cable ties until I fabric them on. |
Fuselage rotating jig (front part).
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Having finally sorted out the woodwork, and other bits, I was in the position of being able to turn the fuselage upside down to check on some things there. |
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The jig bolts on to the engine mounting bolts. |
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Because the fuselage needs to tilt as well as rotate, a swivel is incorporated. A bolt is used to lock the fuselage in the position required. |
Fuselage rotating jig (rear part).
The addition of the aft one will enable the fuselage to rotate like a pig on a spit.
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Components are made up, and where appropriate, bolted up prior to and during welding. I use some old AN3 bolts, tack welded underneath the flat plate. They do not support the weight..they are for location only... |
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...and it is important to ensure that the fin top will miss the floor when deciding the height of the upstand... |
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...and on assembly, the whole fuselage sits in neutral balance; with nothing to prevent rotation (apart from the un-clamped rotation clamps), it will turn on my fingertips. How I wish my barbecue spit would work as well! |
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Fuselage leaves my home to go to John Pitts' house for me to use his beadblasting compressor and for some welding mods. Thanks for the transport, Eric! |  |
Welding! |
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These
photos show me beadblasting the fuselage, after all the welding is done. Done in sections, each section followed by a painting session to cover the area just blasted. 2 days got me to completing the forward section, to just aft of the bit above your head, so a ways to go yet. (the horizontal ladder supports black plastic sheeting to limit overspray) Folks, get this done professionally, it's
not worth the grief! (but I'll do yours for £1M) |
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Bead blasting those smaller components. Parts which need to be identified for location were stamped upon removal so that I know where to fit them back! |
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The fuselage made it back home again, etch-primed. Some trial fitting of the remaining components not already tried, pending the final coat of two-pack epoxy primer. |
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Some straightening of the stabiliser butt rib achieved using brute force! |
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Existing control surface pulleys were
serviceable, but needed re-bushing, since the original bushes had worn loose in the
pulleys. Therefore pulley bore opened out and new phosphor-bronze bushes
turned and press-fitted in. The bush rotates around the bolt, not the pulley rotating
around the bush. Bush is slightly wider than pulley, so preventing the side of the pulley interfering with the bracket.. |
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Replacement gear bumpers...supplied courtesy of my local (3500 miles) hardware supply house, thanks, Jon. Modified in accordance with a certain sketch in a certain Owner's Club newsletter. |
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Car manufacturers
call this "Body-in-white" or biw. In my case, 2-pack white epoxy primer,
over the green 2-pack etch-prime. The last close-up view is of the full gloss 2-pack
acrylic top coat in those areas in the cabin that will be on view. Spraying white on
to a white primer is difficult! Unfortunately, my nice grey epoxy painted floor is now also white! B*llocks. |
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After the gloss coat, all crevices are injected with waxoil (using a hypodermic syringe) to exclude air & water to eliminate any corrosion. The excess will be wiped off with white spirit. |
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More spraying! Note on the fuel tank in the left picture the reinforcing plates welded in to prevent strain & cracking when tightening the fittings. |
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More small parts get the white gloss...in this case the wheels. The same 2-part Acrylic used on the cabin tubes. |
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The rudder bars & brake pedals are gloss-coated white and finished off with some 3M grippy paint, which I acquired from unnamed sources, but some sand mixed in with regular paint would do equally well, I'm sure. |
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Three views of a trial fit of the horizontal stabiliser. It encroaches onto the kitchen, and makes a convenient saucepan holder next to the oven. I will be making a jig to hold the fin and stabilisers all square for the re-drilling of the stabilise attachment holes in the fuselage stubs, and later for alignment for the fin covering. |
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Injecting linseed oil into the sternpost, using a vetinerary syringe, with the wickedly sharp point removed. The last picture shows the stuff unexpectedly pouring out of an aperture at the "H" frame (control column) fitting, to prove that at least some of the tubes are connected internally. Mopping up on my new white floor required! |
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I decide to seal some tubes not otherwise showing signs of having received previous oiling efforts The far left photo shows a test of the re-sealing drive pin inserted in a test piece, to make sure I can re-seal the hole. On the right here is the finished article. |  |
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I am using Pigeon Poo (my colloquial term for "Duralac" barium chromate paste) to seal the drive pinion. This paste is also very good for sealing rivets, screws, and any other application where dissimilar metal corrosion may occur, and also between wood and metal components. I will be using it to protect all my steel bolts through wood spars, aluminium, etc. Available from Aeronautical or Nautical suppliers. Excellent stuff. | ||
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Also going on is a re-varnish of my beloved woodwork, after the Randolph one-part varnish decides to react with the fabric cement after I tested it. So I purchase some 2-part epoxy varnish from my local boat yard, sand off much of the old stuff, and re-apply in 2-part epoxy varnish. An industrial sander works well here! I think I'm up to the 150 hour mark on just the new door frames, but they'll be worth it. | ||
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I remanufacture the
broken aft trim cable fairlead, using solid copper. The original was exemplary in
its lightness, but made of fibreboard with copper inserts must have been very expensive to
make, but bless CG for his attention to a light design. But I cannot afford the
tooling or time, so I have ventured for 1/16 oz extra weight and gone for the easy
option. I got the copper from an electrical supplier (it's a standard bus-bar
section). Note: I have still not drilled the welded-up stabiliser holes in the cross-tube... |
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...because I am still working with my alignment jig. Made from one long piece of random box section, and one long piece (84") of 5/16 bar welded as one, which is then sawn at the appropriate positions to fit into the stabiliser hinges. This ensures the 5/16 stubs are in line, good and true. Photos will follow with it all fitted into the stabilisers and made square and true with a similar fin/sternpost jig and the tailbrace wires. | |
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3 views
of the shoulder harness attachment lugs welded into the cluster aft of the
headliner. Thank you Bruce for issuing the details in the Taylorcraft Owner's Club
Newsletter. The first two photos are viewed from vertically above. The third
photo is of the starboard attachment, viewed from the port side. Note the trim cable
string lines, no reason, just there! The tube marked "FWD" in each case is the upper longeron. I found that I had to modify the approved Taylorcraft drawing for the port (left) side because the top diagonal tube got in the way of the hole. The first of these 3 photos shows this. Make cardboard templates first! |
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Control column shaft bearer is cleaned up. These were replaced many years ago, and are still serviceable. |
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Jon Timlin and his son Jason
pay a brief visit to inspect progress. Jason is conscripted to help make a new
fairlead. Check out Jon's Taylorcraft website. |
Trim:
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Views showing two different dummy rigs for aft trim pulley, so as to set up the correct operating system of the trim. The first shows the fuselage uncovered; the second a modification to permit the dummy pulley to be installed after covering..... |
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...and here's the new forward
pulley, in the process of setting up the trim indicator. Much maintenance work was
done over the decades in the past to get this operating correctly...perhaps one of
CG's mistakes was to have an overly-complicated indicator. Both fore and aft pulleys are new, manufactured from 5mm thick Tufnel. [Right-hand photo shows new spindle also made March 2004: Thanks, David.] |
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New floorboards made, using the old ones as a pattern. 5-ply, 6mm-thick Baltic birch ply used. |
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Applying a pre-set bend to the ply required soaking in water and using weights to form a curve until the wood is dry. |
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The boards are secured with load-spreading countersunk washers, recessed into the surface of the wood, and a new central aluminium strip to cover the join. |
Fuselage structural work
Fuselage Fabric
Wing Structural work
Wing Fabric
Ailerons
Cowls
Tailfeathers & Gear Legs
Doors Control Column & Panel
Final Assembly
