Happy Independence Day to my fellow Americans, and happy Sunday to everyone else. I’ve been brainstorming about a couple items on my -4 and wanted to solicit some input. Pictures are attached and in most cases the common thread is me trying to fix my own mistakes.
The first item is my cockpit longerons behind F-407. When I bought the plane I worked to take care of any outstanding service bulletins. Being my first time performing RV type building practices, the workmanship is nothing to brag about. I considered going back in and seeing if the area is worth cleaning up. The pictures show that the edge distance isn’t too consistent and on the underside of the right gusset I found what appears to a crack around one of the rivets. I understand the longeron is a primary structure member and that how to proceed here may be a question for the mothership. The options as I see it are
1) do nothing if evaluated to be okay
2) remove the rivets and add a doubler underneath
3) find out this is a more serious structural issue and figure out how to proceed from there.
The second item is my left wing tank leading edge. There is some minor denting along a couple of the ribs of the tank. It’s hard to see unless up close but I know about it and it annoys me. Are there any good methods for removing these on a fuel tank or is this a situation where a repair attempt may end up just making work, so to speak.
The third item is also on the left wing. When I was installing a pitot mast I oversized the hole a bit. It’s been cleaned up and the mast was riveted in wet with clear RTV to seal the gap, but again, it looks ugly. My options as I see it are
1) do nothing
2) make an intersection fairing to cover it
3) attempt a partial reskin of that section
The fourth item I have to discuss is more of a theory question. My lower firewall is of course a bit banged up and has had some cracks stop drilled and sealed, as most planes of this vintage have. If in the future I did some serious FWF forward work that necessitated moving control cables and such, would this be an excuse to replace the firewall and make new penetrations, or would I probably be better off just sealing off any old holes?
Thanks in advance for any advice. Hopefully me asking these questions and not just enjoying the bliss of ignorance doesn’t cost me too much.
The first item is my cockpit longerons behind F-407. When I bought the plane I worked to take care of any outstanding service bulletins. Being my first time performing RV type building practices, the workmanship is nothing to brag about. I considered going back in and seeing if the area is worth cleaning up. The pictures show that the edge distance isn’t too consistent and on the underside of the right gusset I found what appears to a crack around one of the rivets. I understand the longeron is a primary structure member and that how to proceed here may be a question for the mothership. The options as I see it are
1) do nothing if evaluated to be okay
2) remove the rivets and add a doubler underneath
3) find out this is a more serious structural issue and figure out how to proceed from there.
The second item is my left wing tank leading edge. There is some minor denting along a couple of the ribs of the tank. It’s hard to see unless up close but I know about it and it annoys me. Are there any good methods for removing these on a fuel tank or is this a situation where a repair attempt may end up just making work, so to speak.
The third item is also on the left wing. When I was installing a pitot mast I oversized the hole a bit. It’s been cleaned up and the mast was riveted in wet with clear RTV to seal the gap, but again, it looks ugly. My options as I see it are
1) do nothing
2) make an intersection fairing to cover it
3) attempt a partial reskin of that section
The fourth item I have to discuss is more of a theory question. My lower firewall is of course a bit banged up and has had some cracks stop drilled and sealed, as most planes of this vintage have. If in the future I did some serious FWF forward work that necessitated moving control cables and such, would this be an excuse to replace the firewall and make new penetrations, or would I probably be better off just sealing off any old holes?
Thanks in advance for any advice. Hopefully me asking these questions and not just enjoying the bliss of ignorance doesn’t cost me too much.
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