Retrofit lighting kit

[Tmountjoy]

Can someone give me an idea of how easy or difficult it is to retrofit Van's "comprehensive lighting kit." Thanks.

[XOverZero]

From the way the instructions are drawn I have to presume the kit was designed to be retrofittable. Cutting the holes for the wingtip units should be more of a challenge to do neatly on the finished wing than with the sheet metal laid flat on the workbench, but do-able nonetheless. What I think would be the toughest task is trying to thread the wiring through all those wing rib snap bushings, from one end all the way to the other. There aren't any access hatches, except the one for the stall warning switch in the left wing. The wings really need to be pre-wired.

Of course, installing the light package during construction instead of after is about as easy as it gets.

Hope that helps.

[Tony_T]

Originally Posted by Tmountjoy

Can someone give me an idea of how easy or difficult it is to retrofit Van's "comprehensive lighting kit." Thanks.

The builder should have included a string in the wings through the snap bushings to be used for pulling in wiring. If there are no strings or wires in the wings then getting the wiring in will be a big problem.

Assuming the strings are there then Yes, the lighting kit is designed for retrofit installation. It is not real difficult but requires the normal builder skills for cutting sheet metal neatly, some riveting and doing a little bit of fiberglass work. Click on the picture to go to a series of photos showing the installation on finished wings that will give a good idea of what is involved:

[Tmountjoy]

Thanks. Really helpful. About how many hours would you estimate for this project?

[Tony_T]

I logged 36 hours installing the lighting kit. Worth mentioning is that my build was 4 years ago and there are some differences not shown in my pictures. The wing connectors are different and far better. There are also more wires out to the wingtip lights to separate the strobes and the nav functions if you have the SkyView wiring in the plane.

[engineerofsorts]

I'm enough of a klutz that I didn't feel safe wielding a dremel tool when cutting the light hole in the skin. I also had no faith in use of snips, and settled on using an Adel nibbling tool--nibbles away about 1/32" at a time, so it was slow going, but allowed me to get very close to the edge and to go around the inside corners without any "oops" moments. Smoothing up with a file followed.

[RV Wannabe]

Has anyone done this on an already painted airplane?

Would like to do it, just worried about how much damage to the paint would occur.

Mark

[scberry]

I distinctly remember when I built my wing that I taped the strings through the holes for the lighting wires. However, when I started the retro I could not locate the string in the right wing. I went to Lowe's an bought a plumbers snake that was a quarter inch wide. I filed the end of the snake to a bullet point. Feeding it through the holes at the wing root was no problem since the ribs are so close together. After that was another matter. After the third try, and rotating the snake 90 degrees (parallel to the spar) it went right on through. Luck or skill, who knows? The string was there in the left wing so no problem.

[kevinl4000]

Thank you Tony, for posting the picture gallery of how you installed your R wing landing light. Very informative. I just finished the W-1201-R inboard wing skin and now I am about to put on the W-1203-R outboard bottom wing skin (got some de-burring to do first). Once that's done I'll skip to Section 40 - cutting the hole for the landing light. My question for the group and especially rvbuilder2002 is this: Before I start cutting the hole for the landing light, should I rivet on the W-1203-R skin per page 17-02, Step 4, or should I just cleco the skin on and move straight to Section 40 and then come back and rivet it on after the landing light and lens is installed?

Thank you for the advice.

[daveyator]

I cut the hole for the light, then drilled for the ribs before final riveting of the skin. Removing the skin for deburring and final cleanup worked well for me. Also gave me lots of room for getting everything fitted nicely. No doubt there are success stories for all methods, but this was what I did.
Have fun. Cutting that hole was a little scary at first, but it isn't that hard. A unibit for the corners, and a Dremel cut off wheel for the straight lines, then finished with a sanding drum. A Dremel with a flex shaft is truly a miracle tool!
All the best,
DaveH
120485