Steve Ashby

Steve Ashby

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I have constructed the cooling ramp that is to be affixed to the fuselage belly with rivets in the front and a hinge in the back. The only problem is that I can't get the wire into the hinge through the little slot that the plans specifies. The wire will go through the first two eyes of the hinge and then veer off. The problem seems to be that bending the wire through the slot makes the tip of the wire trend down when it is fed through the eyes of the hinge. Does anyone have any thoughts about how I can solve this adventure? I am at my wits end.
 
The newer, matched hole kits have done away with the hinge completely. The ramp just rivets with blind rivets at the aft edge and solid rivets at the forward edge before the bend. You might be able to do something like that.

Guy
 
Curious, as you don't really say...

Did you grind the hinge pin to a point? Usually this helps tremendously!
 
yes, you can

grind to a point like a pencil (aforementioned)

lubricate

cut a small (as large as necessary) notch in the skin to facilitate insertion/extraction. if it gets a little big, it can be plugged with sealant during paint.
 
angle

I was fitting my cooling ramp tonight and noticed something that concerns me and that may be a factor in the cracking and other issues associated with the cooling ramp.

The area where the most problem seems to occur is the front of the ramp where it rivets to the bottom of the airframe at the firewall. I observed that the mating of those two surfaces is at an angle. The bottom of the airframe is flat, the cooling ramp intercepts the front of the ramp, where the solid rivets to, at an angle which leaves a small gap between the two surfaces. This gap is removed by bending the ramp to make it level with the bottom of the airframe, which stresses the ramp.

I wonder if a small wedge spacer in that area would cause a more solid mating of the ramp and airframe thereby reducing vibration and cracking.

I was considering using some fiberglass mat and resin on the inside of the ramp to dampen vibration. Perhaps epoxy resin could be applied to the inside of the ramp at the forward rivet line and sanded to the appropriate angle to act as a spacer to fill the angle gap there. Or would the glass material there give way after awhile leaving a space between the areas and making the problem worse?

Any thoughts?
 
Last edited:
tonyjohnson said:
I was fitting my cooling ramp tonight and noticed something that concerns me and that may be a factor in the cracking and other issues associated with the cooling ramp.

The area where the most problem seems to occur is the front of the ramp where it rivets to the bottom of the airframe at the firewall. I observed that the mating of those two surfaces is at an angle. The bottom of the airframe is flat, the cooling ramp intercepts the front of the ramp, where the solid rivets to, at an angle which leaves a small gap between the two surfaces. This gap is removed by bending the ramp to make it level with the bottom of the airframe, which stresses the ramp.

I wonder if a small wedge spacer in that area would cause a more solid mating of the ramp and airframe thereby reducing vibration and cracking.

I was considering using some fiberglass mat and resin on the inside of the ramp to dampen vibration. Perhaps epoxy resin could be applied to the inside of the ramp at the forward rivet line and sanded to the appropriate angle to act as a spacer to fill the angle gap there. Or would the glass material there give way after awhile leaving a space between the areas and making the problem worse?

Any thoughts?
Click to expand...

Tony,
Did you build the ramp structure per Vans instructions? You do know that a fair number of 8A builders have had ramp skin cracking issues? It seems that the turbulence from the nose gear buffets the ramp structure.
Contact me off list.
Charlie Kuss
 
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