The preassembled center section bulkheads I received from Vans came with some scratches and marks, mostly on the center section bars. I have attached pictures. It reminds me of the rough condition of the horizontal stabilizer rear spar reinforcement bars as received, which required a lot of work to smooth out. I was surprised Vans shipped these in this condition, given the admonition in Section 5 to sand out all scratches, no matter how small, and the critical importance of these parts. Given that these are already riveted, I think it would be a real pain to smooth out. Also, if I were to smooth them out, I would have to remove the anodization in those areas. I wrote into Vans to get their opinion, but haven't heard back yet. What do you guys think I should do?
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Scratches/marks on center section bulkheads
- Thread starter bmellis11
- Start date
fixnflyguy
Well Known Member
Ask Vans..
Historically, in the days of old, spars were available "pre-built", however, none of the building was actually performed by Vans employees. Phlogiston Industries was the company the received the parts for the spars and such, gave them the trademark gold anodizing ,assembled, and then the assembly was returned to Vans to be shipped in your kit. They were seemingly always high quality assemblies. I would reach out to Vans and see if its an "assembly vendor" quality control issue, or if its actually in house assembly. I'm sure they would like to know where the QC issue is, and how to correct it.
Historically, in the days of old, spars were available "pre-built", however, none of the building was actually performed by Vans employees. Phlogiston Industries was the company the received the parts for the spars and such, gave them the trademark gold anodizing ,assembled, and then the assembly was returned to Vans to be shipped in your kit. They were seemingly always high quality assemblies. I would reach out to Vans and see if its an "assembly vendor" quality control issue, or if its actually in house assembly. I'm sure they would like to know where the QC issue is, and how to correct it.
I got some replacement center sections for my RV-10 a while back because mine were shipped with big rivets in holes that were supposed to be used for the bolts for the landing gear mount. The replacements looked very similar to your pictures. I sent photos to builder support and the guy I spoke to thought they would be ok but he sent the photos to engineering just in case. It turned out that engineering wasn't happy with them so they sent me an additional set. This was almost a year and a half ago, about the same time they were switching the RV-10 kits to final sized holes so I believe it was a result of the new manufacturing process.
Perhaps by now they have had time to evaluate the effect of scratches in those bars from the manufacturing process and are comfortable with the results, but I wouldn't do anything with those center sections until you hear back from Vans just in case they offer a replacement.
Perhaps by now they have had time to evaluate the effect of scratches in those bars from the manufacturing process and are comfortable with the results, but I wouldn't do anything with those center sections until you hear back from Vans just in case they offer a replacement.
