Legacy kit?

[Daesharacor]

Hi all.

I am currently in the process of building an -8 kit that was originally purchased in 1999 by a friend of mine, and was never touched.

I got from him the empennage kit, as well as the standard build wing kit.

My question:
-Is there anything that has changed about the -8 in the last 12 years? Has the manual been updated or refreshed? Have there been changes in the parts shipped? Is there anything I should contact Vans about?

Thanks, I don't want to build for a couple hundred hours only to find out that I need to take it apart as a small rib had changed or something like that.

Appreciate it!

[Mike S]

You should contact Vans, get the info on the kit you have questions about, and to get the kit number reassigned to you.

[panhandler1956]

The right advice is to contact Van's, but I can tell you that in '08 they went to the matchdrilled fuselage which has some definate differences from the previous version. They call it the -1 fuselage.

[vmirv8bldr]

I started my RV8 in 2005 and was one of the first to receive the Dash One Fuselage. They re-sent a completely new center section. This normally comes with the wings, as they are match drilled as a mated pair. When they sent the new center section, they said that the tooling was accurate enough that the fact that they were not match drilled was irrelevant.

I mated my wings to the fuselage about two weeks ago without a single hitch. I used "pins" that I made from hardware store bolts and they went in fairly easily. So, don't be concerned that the dash one fuselage includes a new center section.

Do not use the one that is with the original wing kit, it will not work with the dash one fuselage.

I echo the other responses, call Van's. At a minimum, get a new set of drawings and instructions, there were a few things omitted from my wing kit drawings (and instructions) that caused some serious head scratching. Vans sent me a couple of revised drawings recently that really helped.

[Daesharacor]

Thanks, I'll call Vans. It sounds like there are some things I should have updated. Appreciate the replies!