7a Gear Tower holes in F-772 bottom skin
Here's a tip for others.
When you get to cutting the holes for the gear leg towers in the F-772 bottom forward skin, this may help.
Copy the template on DWG 34a. Make a few. Punch the rivet holes out with a sharp piece of 1/16" tubing.
Remove the nutplates interfering on the F-704 top flange. You can't get the gear tower in with them there. Reinstall them later. Thanks Vans.
Remove the two forward seat floors.
Remove the two F--782B Cover Support Ribs. Also in the way. Thanks Vans.
Lay the template on the skin. Mark the line. Do the same on the F-704 flange and center skin. I used a Dremel with a metal cutter bit for all the work including the gear holes. With a little pressure, it cuts along a line and with very light pressure it barely removes material. I can hold it like a pencil and draw along an edge very precisely. go in the dire tion of tbe rotation so it doesn't gouge.
Cut the relief hole including the extra shown. It's pretty close.
Cut the relief area on F-704 also but leave extra to fine tune the fit. Watch that one rivet hole. I checked with Vans. They approved busting the minimum edge distance but remember those five holes get double flush rivets so you will countersink the F-704 flange on the inside and the bottom skin layers on the outside. The final relief should leave enough material so the countersink doesn't encroach on the edge.
Fit the gear tower first. Slowly remove material till is fits flush against F-704C. Use drift pins to make sure you have the tower where it should land. Clean up the edges.
Cleko F-772 bottom forward skin in place. Note the edge where you relieved F-704. You need to relieve the skin hole to match.
Now try to install the gear tower. Note where additional material needs to come off. It's probably on the forward and inboard areas of the hole. I use a fine tip Sharpie to make a line along the edge. This helps to see how much material is being removed. Don't take more than a line off at a time.
Keep trial fitting till the gear tower plops right into place.
Now cleko a clean template to the perfect hole. Go inside and mark the hole. Remove and cut the new template hole. Cleko to the other side and you have a mirror that should fit perfect.