Craig

Craig

Well Known Member
I have a quickbuild RV-8 (wings and fuselage). I have mated the wings and fuselage for the first time. There is a significant gap between the bottom fuselage skin and the bottom wing skin. I have drilled the screw holes, thinking that it would close the gap. The result is a bow between each screw.

I'm thinking that I can bend the bottom fuselage skin upward a little when I have the wings off next time. The aft spar will kind of limit how much I can bend it.

If this doesn't eliminate the bow between each screw, I'm thinking of a spacer between the top of the bottom fuselage skin and the bottom of the bottom wing skin.

I'm soliciting other ideas.

Here's a picture of the offending area:



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Craig Mac Arthur
 
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Craig,

I am having the exact same issue as you describe.
Bottom_skin_to_wingskin_buckle.jpg


I see it's been a while since you posted it and there are no posts of suggestions or solutions. Would you mind sharing (or anyone else for that matter) what you did to resolve it ?
 
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3 quickbuild 8's..........3 situations identical to yours. I haven't looked at any other 8's to see if it's common. You really have to work hard to see it, and it's just not worth the bending and stooping to check out somebody else's plane. If it was somewhere that you could see it all the time it might be worth addressing.
 
Ditto

jthocker said:
3 quickbuild 8's..........3 situations identical to yours. I haven't looked at any other 8's to see if it's common. You really have to work hard to see it, and it's just not worth the bending and stooping to check out somebody else's plane. If it was somewhere that you could see it all the time it might be worth addressing.
Click to expand...

Mine looks similar to the pic in the second post. It might slow you down 1/10th of a MPH.

If someone is a**l enough to get down to look there, tell them that it's a speed mod.:D

Build on, don't obsess about it!:rolleyes:
 
I have one of those shrinkers and have used it successfully a few times.
It needs to be bench mounted and the material passed thru it while acuating the lever. I used it on my fwd. baggage door to improve the fit.
You'd probably need to get 5-10 guys together to pick up the fuselage and pass it thru the shrinker.;)
It would probably be easier to adapt the shrinker to a pneumatic squeezer somehow.
 
jthocker said:
I have one of those shrinkers and have used it successfully a few times.
It needs to be bench mounted and the material passed thru it while acuating the lever. I used it on my fwd. baggage door to improve the fit.
You'd probably need to get 5-10 guys together to pick up the fuselage and pass it thru the shrinker.;)
It would probably be easier to adapt the shrinker to a pneumatic squeezer somehow.
Click to expand...

Hand carrying the shrinker to a solidly mounted skin overlap, will work just fine. As long as the wings are out of the way.. :D

Same goes for canopy skirts that need a bit of tweaking. Just sit the canopy on a bench, and move the shrinker around.

L.Adamson --- RV6A
 
Thanks for all the input and suggestions.
I'll see if I can find another local builder who has one I could borrow and try it out on some scrap first, to get used to how it works.

Not a deal breaker, but would be nice to have the skin lay nice and flat on the bottom.
 
Wicked Stick said:
Not a deal breaker, but would be nice to have the skin lay nice and flat on the bottom.
Click to expand...

If the gap is actually the thickness of a thin aluminum skin, then I'd stuff a strip of aluminum in between flush; and the end result would just look like a slightly thicker overlapping skin.........on the bottom side of the plane. It really might be better than shrinking.

L.Adamson
 
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