Aveo Zip Tips III - How are you attaching?

[AlpineYoda]

Started working on my ZipTips. I've read through about 50 threads about them on this site, but I didn't see any comments on how people are attaching the access panel. I'm planning to do the following three things to mine - as they say at weddings, please speak now if anyone thinks I'm about to do anything wrong!

1 - My RV-10 wings have about 1/2 inch of skin at the end of the wing. The ZipTips have about 1 1/4 inches of thin material to fit into the end of the wing. So, I will be grinding down about 3/4 of an inch of the fiberglass to make the indentation line flush against the end of the skin.

2 - I plan to attach the wingtips by dimpling the skin for #6 screws, countersinking the fiberglass, and attaching nutplates to the wingtips. Any comments on whether I can attach the nutplates directly to the fiberglass? Or should I add a 0.02 inch aluminum backing strip? The fiberglass on the flange seems thick enough to not need it, but is it worth the work to add that?

3 - Most importantly, how have others attached the access panels? I thinking I will use K1000-06 nutplates and 6R6 screws. Given how thin the fiberglass is here, I think that 0.02 aluminum is required between the nutplates and fiberglass. About 12 screws/nutplates seems right to me.

Any thoughts out there? Am I on track with all of this or has anyone else tried something different? Thanks!

[Greg Baron]

Consider Click Bond wing tip nut plate kit. The adhesive “pool” around the nut plate give a generous surface area. The installation is smooth and quick.

[AlpineYoda]

Those look really interesting. But at $4 to $8 per nutplate, that will add up quickly! You mentioned a wingtip kit - all I’ve been able to find are loose nutplates at a shop in Utah or a $30 kit at spruce for 4. And nothing is smaller than 8-32. Can you post a link to the kit you are talking about? Thanks!

[jjb]

I have purchased some individual #6 Clickbond nutplates from the shop in Utah, and at the time they offered an RV wingtip kit on their old website.

I used them to fasten the landing light lens to the wingtip on my RV-7 project, and am using a few of them in various other places, typically where it is difficult to drive a rivet for a nutplate because of access issues, or where I did not want to drill a lot of holes in the underlying structure for nutplate rivets.

They are an ideal solution, and easy to use, albeit pricey. I did not use them to fasten the wingtips to the wing for that reason, but otherwise feel they would be a good solution for that.

An internet search will turn up online vendors that stock a full line of Clickbond products, including #6 nutplates. I have purchased from one of them also, in addition to ACS and the Utah shop.

[climberrn]

Theflightshop is the main distributor for ClickBond. I’ve had a few break off and that was a real pain to cut the screw without damaging the paint. The install was quick and clean but I’d probably use nut plates if I had to do it again.

[Richard Connell]

My vote is for hinges.

[majuro15]

I attached the wingtips to the wings using the hinge method and like it but it was a lot of extra work, especially for the painter who got them fitted perfectly. I could have done better with the hinge install. I used screws and nutplates for the access panels, 5 screws per panel. I didn't use aluminum with the nutplates, no issues thus far. I may add two more screws on the leading edge at the annual, but haven't noticed any issues thus far.

[fl-mike]

The problem with the hinge method for the zip tips is that the flange is double thick in the module area and the module wall comes right up to the flange. I planned to use hinges, but I don’t think it will work. I now plan to use nut plates.

The 10 tips may have more space to work with than the 7/8 tips.