Rebuilding RV-7, A few questions

[Janekom]

Someone I know had an engine out and a lot of damage. They might ask me to rebuild it for them. The idea is to rebuild the fuselage and then fit the old parts that survided to it.
I have a few questions that came to mind. I will appreciate if those in the know can answer some of them.

As far as I know one cannot order a QB fuse if you want to use your old wings?

How many hours to build a fuselage keeping in mind that I am an expierenced builder?

Anyone who would like to estimate stripping parts like seats, firewall forward, panel stuff and re-using on the new fuselage?

Obviously there are a a lot of other factors to think about. For example I have thought that it will be good to replace each and every AN bolt an nut on the AC.

[Flyguytki]

Jan,
As im sure you know there is lots that goes into it, how much time you can dedicate per day is a big one. I was able to get a Slow build fuse to a quickbuild stage in 30 days, now granted it was 250 hours of work but it was possible. So i see it as saving $5,000 for 30 days worth of work? sounds good to me.

-david

[pierre smith]

Hi Jan,
The newer kits are all jig drilled and your wings should fit a new, QB fuse...their quality control is that good but get it from the horse's mouth.

Best,

[RV6AussieNick]

Hi Jan,

What you described sounds similar to what happened to my -6, the previous owner had an engine out just after take off, lots a damage after flipping over, I had a close look at the airframe, made a list of the parts needed to be replace, calculated the costs then made the decision that it was repairable, I've been working on it for almost 18 months, I could have finished sooner, I'm taking my time making sure everything is right before I put it back together.

I don't think it's necessary to replace all the AN bolts, have a detailed visual inspection of the bolts around the engine mounts, landing gear, wing attach points, any area that might have had higher than normal loads during the crash. If you see any ridges on the bolt shank, bent or damaged threads, replace the bolt.

Do you have any photo's..?? Is the airframe completely damaged..??

Good luck with it, if you do decide to rebuild, your going to have a great experience. I've got a blog showing what I started with and where my rebuild is at now. http://rv-6rebuild.blogspot.com/

Cheers,

[David-aviator]

Originally Posted by pierre smith

Hi Jan,
The newer kits are all jig drilled and your wings should fit a new, QB fuse...their quality control is that good but get it from the horse's mouth.

Best,

Actually it goes back to 2003.

After an off field landing the fuselage was junk but wings were without a scratch. The wings fit perfect in the new QB fuselage.