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Nutplates beneath floors: how far back?

claycookiemonster

Well Known Member
The previous builder of my project went to the trouble of installing nutplates beneath all of the floor panels. However, the nutplates do not extend into the floor of the baggage compartment. I can nest the baggage compartment floor beneath the cockpit floors and screw the leading edge of the baggage floor along with the main floors. Is there anything to be gained by continuing the nutplates beneath the floor of the rear baggage compartment up to the point where the rear wall of the baggage compartment goes vertical over the battery?

Anything I'm going to need to access down there?

Also, the thin cuts in the sides of the left and right rear floors, where they go around the reinforcements over the rear spar attach points do not fit exactly right. Any issue of widening the opening of that cut by 1/16" to 1/8" so it's not pressing on that bulkhead?
 
I put nutplates all the way back so I could remove the baggage floor. They have also been handy put in anchors for baggage.

I have most of the Garmin LRU remote mounted back by the bell crank and plumbed it for a smoke system. I wanted to make sure I could access the wire bundles, smoke oil line, cables, and other items that run under that section of floor. Depending on your implementation this may not be as critical.
 
Pop rivets are easier to remove than screws in nut plates. Easier to re-install the new ones too.
 
+1 for nut plates all the way back

Nut plates all the way back. I can remove the rear baggage floor in about 10 minutes. IMHO drilling out pop rivets will likely take longer, induce damage as you drill them out (enlarged holes), and introduce FOD into your fuselage for all those missing back sides of pop rivets. For a little extra work you’ll have unlimited access to wire bundles and elevator push rods, AP servo.
 
From a guy who bought a completed 8 with pop-rivets from the passenger floor back, who needed to run an additional wire to the tail for a strobe, please install nutplates!

Easy to do while you are building. Otherwise it's a real PIA to get under there at a later date.
 
I installed nutplates everywhere, and if I were to do it again, I'd probably only install a nutplate in every other hole or even every 3rd hole. Not sure what I'd do with the empty holes in the pre-drilled floor panels, but gosh there's a lot of screws to remove and put in, and the floors would stay there with 1/10 the screws. I have not checked with Van's but I doubt they are structural.
 
Ok, plenty of support for nutplates beneath the baggage compartment, but that piece also runs up the sides and is the walls of the baggage compartment too. Did those of you with nutplates beneath the floor separate the floor from the walls back there so if you remove the floor, the walls remain in place?

Riveted sides and screws on the floors? What was one piece of aluminum is now three pieces?
 
Ok, plenty of support for nutplates beneath the baggage compartment, but that piece also runs up the sides and is the walls of the baggage compartment too. Did those of you with nutplates beneath the floor separate the floor from the walls back there so if you remove the floor, the walls remain in place?

Riveted sides and screws on the floors? What was one piece of aluminum is now three pieces?

My walls in the baggage compartment come out with the floor. Since I use torx screws here, a few mins with the screw gun and I'm done, but it does require an extension. Going back together is a bit slower, but certainly much faster and cleaner than drilling out blind rivets. I'd also put in fewer nutplates and screws here if I were doing it again.
 
Ok, plenty of support for nutplates beneath the baggage compartment, but that piece also runs up the sides and is the walls of the baggage compartment too. Did those of you with nutplates beneath the floor separate the floor from the walls back there so if you remove the floor, the walls remain in place?

Riveted sides and screws on the floors? What was one piece of aluminum is now three pieces?

Kept it all as one piece. The baggage floor/side panels are fairly flexible and will come out easily after removing the screws. Like Mickey says, a screw gun with an extension and/or a 90 degree adapter makes taking these panels out very easy (10 minutes tops).
 

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Carlos 151, first of all, "La Otra Chica" is a brilliant name for your plane. Full points on that. What is the platform behind what would be the end of the baggage compartment? More carge? Electronics?
 
Carlos 151, first of all, "La Otra Chica" is a brilliant name for your plane. Full points on that. What is the platform behind what would be the end of the baggage compartment? More carge? Electronics?

Thanks! My wife is "La Chica" and since I spent so much time building my RV8 (7 1/2 year affair) it seemed appropriate to call her La Otra Chica. What's even better is that my wife approved of the nose art. :D

I built the shelf behind the baggage compartment as an avionics platform. Installed the ELT, flap controller, trim controller and strobe control box back there. Attached the shelf to the longerons with you guessed it, nutplates. ;) Three on each side. The grommet holes you see are for wire pass throughs and all wiring bundles travel under the removable floor. When I was building her, my tech counselor recommended putting as much weight aft as possible for CG purposes since I was going to have a Hartzell prop on the front end. My battery is in the aft location and having installed some of the avionics on that aft shelf I'm happy to report that she can be fully loaded at max weight and is well within the CG envelope. If you're going to mount a lighter prop, this may not work for you.
 

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Beautiful paint scheme! Right up my alley! I'm trying to get my hands on the paints necessary to re-create the "Smurf" camo from AT-38's at Holloman AFB from my distant past.

Who did your paint, and where did you get the colors? Who painted the nose art?
 
Beautiful paint scheme! Right up my alley! I'm trying to get my hands on the paints necessary to re-create the "Smurf" camo from AT-38's at Holloman AFB from my distant past.

Who did your paint, and where did you get the colors? Who painted the nose art?

GLO Custom in TX painted her up because my painting abilities do not extend beyond priming. My all time favorite aircraft is the F4U Corsair and that's what this paint job recreates. My old squadron VFA-151, used to fly Corsairs back in the day, hence the registration N151TK and the paint job. On a layover in IAD I went to the Udvar Hazy museum and took a multitude of pictures of the Corsair that's hanging as you enter. Sent my idea and pictures to Grady at GLO (I think he's retired now but i believe GLO continues), and he matched the colors exactly with those of that particular Corsair. Royal blue, Bahama blue and Matterhorn white is what was used with Sherwin Williams Jet Glo paint. There's one other RV8 that I know of painted up the same way in west TN with some slight differences, but he had the same idea for a paint scheme and had GLO do it up (Clem here on VansAF).

The nose art was supposed to be air brushed on but when the aircraft was at the paint shop, the air brush artist was not available. I turned to Victory Girl Nose Art in CA and they customized the nose art and provided a couple of very high quality vinyl decals. After 6+ years of flying they still look brand new. They were a pleasure to work with and I would highly recommend them.

If you have high resolution pictures of a T38 with the camo paint scheme you want, I'm sure any paint shop you choose will be able to match up the colors and paint scheme.
 
Funny. I bet many builders have the same experience. When I began building, my wife-at-that-time complained that the kit was "The Monster in the Basement." Given that my last name is Cook, the plane became "The Cookie Monster."
I'm pursuing the original colors on the AT-38, and have the original Federal Standard paint numbers. I'll go from there when I get close. I've noticed Victory Girl Nose Art. How were they to work with? What was the process?
 
I used nutplates on all my floors. I was growing a bit tired of the time it was taking me to install the nutplates.

I bought a bag of clip nuts at Sun & Fun and used those for the baggage area. They go in a LOT faster!

https://www.aircraftspruce.com/categories/aircraft_parts/ap/menus/ha/nut_clip.html

Knipex pliers and oops rivets saved me a ton of time and effort. They have a parallel motion and set small rivets easy. the oops rivets don't need a dimple, just a couple of twists with the debur tool and you're done.
 
I've noticed Victory Girl Nose Art. How were they to work with? What was the process?

I dealt with Jerri and she was an absolute pleasure to work with. Started off with stock nose art and modified to fit what I wanted. I would definitely go back.
To keep this in line with the original thread, no nutplates were used to install the nose art :D
 
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