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RV-7A rebirthing

Decided to start on the canopy...initial fit before cutting anything

Looks like I have a way to go with this puppy...

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SDS/EFII

Picked this up last year off VAF looking forward to getting to the point I have a need to install it. Going to get one more setup to go full EFI.

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Brake lines in for test fit of length and chafing

Brake lines in for test fit. No anti-chafe procedures yet addressed or final routing of lines.

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Words of wisdom? Also, I need to deal with the sub-panel sooner than later, what do y'all think about just using current rivet holes and scaling in some plates and going from there. I should not have anything going through the sub-panel after the refit of glass panel etc.
 
pic extension added to chrome

So I added an extension that was indicated by another VAF'er and it seems to work to show all of the pictures once obscured by Photobucket. Promising at least for the short term.
 
firewall doubler

So I had some clean-up and reaming to do on this doubler then priming and will install today after church.

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Can't see the last two posts you have involving pictures. I wonder if it's a permission error.
 
Can't see the last two posts you have involving pictures. I wonder if it's a permission error.

Thanks again I have shared it and reshared it and double checked it so I am going to build and use Kodachrome, hahaha
 
FYI. None of your photos beginning with Post #153 are visible for me.

Roger. I think I am going to take another look at the value of this to me and anyone browsing. I have tried several avenues and they are all dead ends...lol

I am not seeing them either after a thorough cache cleaning
 
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what happened

Kent: In one of the first posts in this thread a reference was made that looked like it was the history of how you got started into this project but when I click on it, nothing comes up. Can you give me a brief history? Thanks, John R
 
John,
I got started looking for a plane to purchase, certified. Couldn't find anything with the performance I wanted. Started looking for a kit and found that Vans is right down the 5 freeway 20 minutes. Seemed like the best choice.
Saw the plane wreck I now own for sale on Barnstormers I think and after some vacillation, I thought I could make it work and bought it. Trailered it up from SAC and started work on it. It was a turn over from Nevada originally. I purchased it from the guy who bought the wreck originally for the motor that was in it. So it had no motor or panel and had a bent left wing spar amongst many other things.

I purchased a SB fuse kit minus hardware and a few skins and have been resurrecting it ever since.
I knew it would have more damage than I thought and I was correct. I have rebuilt many vintage cars and it is always worse than you think. At least that has been my experience.

I think that about sums it up!

Kent
 
floors in mostly

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Just messing about with the frame and getting to know each other a bit better before we go all the way.

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Hope they show...
 
So, it appears to me after some investigation that if you are not logged into Google you will not be able to see many of the images in this thread and if you are logged in you may still not be able to see them...I have a flickr acct. I am trying to get up and running currently.

What I bought, seemed to be in much better shape than I knew it would be...I was correct.

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Last fuse skin going on

I have finally gotten back to work on the plane...

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Going pretty well, had a weird deal ended up a -4...oh well
 
aft deck done

So, I finally got the aft deck sorted. The most trouble I have had to date with rivets in NEW holes no combination old and new.
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This is the zone of darkness...I put one "4" in and feel good about that one. The skin to longeron fourth rivet in from the back of aft top skin is marginal at best. I got a decent shop head but if anything is going to smoke on me it will be right here. I didn't want to climb in this morning to take a pic of the head, it is Easter after all. He is risen!

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I have been futzing with the CY frame and need to make a bigger table and jig it down to get serious, so just close so far. I welded tubing on and off in my career so I have nightmares of getting anything to "meet" in the middle shall we say when it comes to tweaking this thin wall lightweight tubing...

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slider frame

So, I had a bunch of scrap laying around and screwed the mess to the table and it appears to be working. The first test fit showed I needed a bit more elevation to the rear bow. This frame is from 2018 and it is pretty darn close.

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So, I had a bunch of scrap laying around and screwed the mess to the table and it appears to be working. The first test fit showed I needed a bit more elevation to the rear bow. This frame is from 2018 and it is pretty darn close.

41200401102_c842421826_b.jpg

Ya, so, this did absolutely nothing. Short of heating it up, which I don't really want to do, I need another approach. That approach will be to drive down to
Van's and get Scott on the hook for some help. I know he will be excited to see a dedicated RV'er show up in person to get the straight scoop from him!
Right?
 
New jig steup

So the previous jig was a bust but I changed one aspect and boom, it worked!
I let the aft end of the lower canopy move inward, it needed to, and I found that it set everything at the correct aspect without undue stress on me or the frame.

let the aft go free!
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Added force like his until I was beyond uncomfortable, that is usually a good place to start
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Capture areas I did not want to move. The first position didn't feel right so moved it from 10:15 and 1:15 to 10:30 and 1:30

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So I drove over to Van's and Sterling and I went over to the -9 to look at the slider setup. I need more cowbell on the back hoop. Then after it is perfect, or close, I compress the whole caboodle .500...huh haha its always something, in my Gilda Radner voice...
 
Kent I have seen many people tweaking these canopy frames. Is this pretty standard on all build?
 
Kent I have seen many people tweaking these canopy frames. Is this pretty standard on all build?

Jereme, I really don't know. I was all over the interwebs and the manual and decided to just start forcing it in the direction I thought it needed to go.
In terms of the jig, I think so but many had much more elaborate rigs than mine.
I simply had this stuff in the garage. IMHO you can get away with short contact points. My frame was pretty decent. I am still not 100% I have to pinch it in 0.500 before affixing the plex.
One point I will repeat here is that the front tube stubs the roller things go in are dissimilar in length on mine and several others so measure finished length and cut off the excess tube. If you measure from the end and the tubes are not the same length, bad joojoo.
when you get to this point call me and I can at least tell you what I found out doing mine.
 
Jereme, I really don't know. I was all over the interwebs and the manual and decided to just start forcing it in the direction I thought it needed to go.
In terms of the jig, I think so but many had much more elaborate rigs than mine.
I simply had this stuff in the garage. IMHO you can get away with short contact points. My frame was pretty decent. I am still not 100% I have to pinch it in 0.500 before affixing the plex.
One point I will repeat here is that the front tube stubs the roller things go in are dissimilar in length on mine and several others so measure finished length and cut off the excess tube. If you measure from the end and the tubes are not the same length, bad joojoo.
when you get to this point call me and I can at least tell you what I found out doing mine.

Sounds great! thanks for the detailed info
 
I have a slight twist still. After cutting the front bow tubes to length, the front left and right rear corners are airborne...about .200-250". These are the times working with a recovered airplane make me go deep into what is really bent. I have a decent size granite inspection table from my other business of passed so I checked the frame on it to see that it is the frame, not the plane. Also, not sure yet if I cut the front tubes too short, might have by about 60-80 thousand (Turns out after re-reading the manual again I should be good. The side rails are exactly 2.45" in height across their length front to back).


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So this is about how much twist I have. The thumb drive is holding it up a bit, but pretty close dimension of the twist.

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Isn't it amazing how some of the little things can take so much time during the build!
 
My slider frame is not moving where I need it to. Aggressive action needed.

Goodish side
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Left side pin low and hits receiver block center low...

suggestions?
 
Only a suggestion...

I reviewed your previous posts to see if you'd been working on the frame for awhile. Yup. Looks a lot like what I've been through on the ones I've done.

I had the exact same twist. I don't have a great photo of the setup I used to remove it but here's one showing things as I was setting up:

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I added some blocks to the table surface to more positively clamp the forward bow, then used a long straight edge held vertically to the table to get a tape-measure-accuracy position on the rear pins. Then with two(!) helpers we twisted the whole thing while standing on the table (so the table wouldn't just slide across the floor) until subsequent measurements indicated that we had imparted the necessary twist. It took a lot of force and motion, as you've discovered. Dropped it on the fuselage and voila, it fit. Finally. And, as it appears to be in your case, it was the last thing I needed to do before calling it good.

Good luck!
 
I reviewed your previous posts to see if you'd been working on the frame for awhile. Yup. Looks a lot like what I've been through on the ones I've done.

I had the exact same twist. I don't have a great photo of the setup I used to remove it but here's one showing things as I was setting up:

i-CjJ58w3-L.jpg


I added some blocks to the table surface to more positively clamp the forward bow, then used a long straight edge held vertically to the table to get a tape-measure-accuracy position on the rear pins. Then with two(!) helpers we twisted the whole thing while standing on the table (so the table wouldn't just slide across the floor) until subsequent measurements indicated that we had imparted the necessary twist. It took a lot of force and motion, as you've discovered. Dropped it on the fuselage and voila, it fit. Finally. And, as it appears to be in your case, it was the last thing I needed to do before calling it good.

Good luck!

Lars, Thank you for the tip.
As it turns out that is exactly the last step and what myself and my buff 195lb son did last night. Stared at it for a few minutes and then reefed on it as you described three different times and bomb! Pretty darn good fit. I can now attach the slider track permanently. One more question: now I have to pinch it together 0.5" for the spring back of the plex???

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Not perfect but good enough for me tonight...
 
(snipped) One more question: now I have to pinch it together 0.5" for the spring back of the plex???

I did and it worked well, though I used SikaFlex to bond the canopies I've done. I've never screwed/riveted a canopy so that might require something different.

Also probably better to think of it as 1/2" rather than 0.5" ;)
 
I did and it worked well, though I used SikaFlex to bond the canopies I've done. I've never screwed/riveted a canopy so that might require something different.

Also probably better to think of it as 1/2" rather than 0.5" ;)

How did you execute this? I am afraid to throw off all my work on the hoops with a standard squeeze...fractions give me headaches...haha
 
How did you execute this? I am afraid to throw off all my work on the hoops with a standard squeeze...fractions give me headaches...haha

Wish I had a photo. I'll try to describe it:

I drilled holes in some 2x4 blocks the same diameter as the forward bow tube (3/4"? there's a dang fraction again). Set the blocks on the workbench, then stuck the extensions of the forward bow into the blocks. Slid things around a bit to make sure there was no side load on the forward bow, then screwed the blocks to the workbench with drywall screws. The idea being to capture the forward bow so it couldn't move.

Oh yeah, the above setup was arranged so the entire canopy frame was over the bench (nothing hanging over an edge).

Used a ratchet strap around the bench, wound around the center bow where it's welded to the forward bow, then back to itself. Tightened just enough that the forward bow couldn't pop out of the blocks.

Dropped a plumb bob from the center bow at front and back, made marks on the bench, then drew a line connecting the marks. That way I could measure from the centerline out to each pin, for a before-and-after measurement. I used a ratchet strap looped around the pin/aft bow intersection on each side and started tightening. Then loosening and measuring, then tightening... Amazingly I managed 1/4" (that's 0.25" :D ) on each side. A symmetric bend, in other words.

Next I secured the aft bow with some blocks and clamps, goal being to fix it like I did up front. Backed out the drywall screws securing the front blocks, then repeated the process to narrow the front bow. That took a lot more force and distortion, but eventually I got it.

My memory is a little dim on this, but I'm fairly certain that the above was not without consequences- the frame wound up with some twist again and I had to repeat the procedure in my previous post.

Others may be able to do it faster with good results, but that's what worked for me.

In the end it fit pretty well after the canopy was installed, though not perfect. I made the entire canopy skirt out of a glass/carbon layup, which nicely covered all imperfections. If you can't see them they don't exist :eek:
 
That sounds like a good process. I can imagine you had to close it much greater than what you ended with in terms of final dim's. +-50-100 thou :rolleyes:
 
track

I started on the slider track. Had to move it up a bit to get the slider to fit very close to spot on at the rear. This was set during the fitting process not after.

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When you are done with track fiddling, do yourself a favor and go to your favorite hardware store. Pick up a nice 1/4" acorn nut to cap that piece of all-thread supporting the track. Or risk a nice 1/4-20 (or 1/4-28, depending on what you have there) scar on your scalp like I have :rolleyes:
 
Lars will do! I have a piece of AL tube to go over the all-thread as well, not a fan of all-thread for the most part...
 
Kent, do you plan on Sikaflex? Excuse me if you stated it earlier in the thread.

Haven't decided Blain. I just ordered the rivets to drill and rivet, but not sure I will do this method but wanted the option. Leaning on drilling per plans. I try to follow plans most of the time. Have left over sika? I have a source for some locally that I need to get in touch with the owner about buying. I want to have it on hand to back up the rivets regardless.
 
canopy latch

This latch stud is not in the correct orientation to the latch arm...

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I will have to bend the latch arm to get proper purchase on the stud. I am aware that I need to massage the end of the latch arm I have that math to do next.
 
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