I give up! Need advice.

[Doug Rohrer]

RV-9A QB fuselage with slider canopy. I am trying to attach the front roll bar to the main longerons with the four bolts supplied. There are custom trimmed spacers needed to allow the bolts to sit flat. I cannot find a way to get the rear spacers, washers and nuts installed with any combination of fingers and tools I can come up with. The lower flange of WD-641 blocks access with fingers and wrenches (DWG 42). You can't even see the bolt with a mirror. It seems I have to cut away the offending flange for tool access, or possibly install the bolts upside down with the nuts on top. How have others completed this task? Thanks.

[Bicyclops]

On my 6 there are blocks of aluminum that act as clamps on the bottom of the longeron and have nutplates on them. That's probably the spacers to which you referred. Check the drawing. They probably call for or could be equipped with nutplates. I fed a string through the hole from above and used it to pull and manipulate the blocks into place to where I could hold them with a fingertip while starting the bolt.

Where the slider tracks sit on cockpit side rails, I made strips of sheetmetal with nutplates rather than try to start nuts individually for each screw. I used the same string trick to get them into position to start the screws.

Ed Holyoke

[John Tierney]

I think I used a combination of fuel lube and the nut duct taped into a small box end wrench, then screwed together from the top. Put the washer under the bolt head. You could also try super-gluing the lower assembly together, which I used on some of my wing attach nuts in the gear tower of my -7A.

[BMC_Dave]

Magnets? I've found them useful when trying to put nuts and washers on in hard to reach places. Insert bolt, place magnet on top, magnetized bolt holds on to steel washer and nut while I fiddle with it out of sight...

[Doug Rohrer]

I looked at the nutplate idea. The spacer is too small to hold a #4 nutplate. That would have been the ultimate solution.

Has anyone chopped away the underhanging flange to allow access to the end of the bolt? The drawing says the overhanging portion of WD-641 may be cut away, but I am not sure the area in question is considered "overhang".

I will keep playing with tape, sticks, glue and modified wrenches. It would have been nice if these spacers were a little longer and we could have installed nutplates.

[Bicyclops]

How about MK1000 miniature nutplates:
https://www.aircraftspruce.com/catal...?clickkey=5767

Ed Holyoke

Originally Posted by Doug Rohrer

I looked at the nutplate idea. The spacer is too small to hold a #4 nutplate. That would have been the ultimate solution.

Has anyone chopped away the underhanging flange to allow access to the end of the bolt? The drawing says the overhanging portion of WD-641 may be cut away, but I am not sure the area in question is considered "overhang".

I will keep playing with tape, sticks, glue and modified wrenches. It would have been nice if these spacers were a little longer and we could have installed nutplates.

[WingsOnWheels]

Just put the bolt up from the bottom with the nut on top. Not an ideal orientation, but an easy place to inspect. Much easier to install that way.

[Doug Rohrer]

I ended up using a die grinder to cut a relief in the bottom flange under the bolt so I could get a socket on the bolt. It only took a few minutes to bolt everything up once I got access. The next best choice would have been the inverted bolt idea. Building on...

[Ralph Inkster]

A small piece of 2 sided foam tape on the spacer to hold in place. A custom bent up closed end wrench for that specific job, washer glued to nut & that held in the wrench with masking tape. Do it when nobody is around as the air will still be full of choice words.

[Stoo]

I also put both bolts in from the bottom with the nuts on top.
Stewart Willoughby, 6. Building a paint booth.