I thought once I got past the damage caused by the first builder and then fixing the mistakes I had made, the rest of my early 6AQB would go together a whole lot easier. But not so. I have spent a considerable amount of time and expense in the last 12 months dealing with the unsatisfactory work from the factory.
My latest discovery is that the main gear weldments don't fit.
At first I thought it was my ineptitude in putting things together, but putting the wings on the bench and trying to match a weldment to a a spar showed that almost none of the "match-drilled" holes match the spar much less the fuselage holes. Some of the holes are considerably off. Here's one side:
The weldments don't match the gear legs either. Here is the right gear leg top showing that the hole drilled is not the same.
My only conclusion is that the weldments were mixed up somehow when the kit was first shipped years ago and I got somebody else's weldments. Or else my weldments were just drilled on a factory jig somewhere, hoping they'd fit.
I have tried to recreate the geometry to see just how far off all the holes are when the landing gear is installed but so far I can't quite get the legs quite where they should be under the plane. I will probably have to enlarge the holes in the floor skin some more.
If I can get the parts to line up, I may be able to take the gear weldments and weld the 50 or so holes shut and re-drill and re-ream them. At least some of the re-drilling will have to be done with the plane upright and both assemblies clamped to the spar.
Has anybody done this? Is it advisable?
My only other good option is to buy all new weldments and gear legs. Vans has a set of legs and weldments that are supposedly match-drilled to each other. No guarantee that they will fit but at least the weldments will be a clean slate.
Has anybody else dealt with this?
Dave A.
My latest discovery is that the main gear weldments don't fit.
At first I thought it was my ineptitude in putting things together, but putting the wings on the bench and trying to match a weldment to a a spar showed that almost none of the "match-drilled" holes match the spar much less the fuselage holes. Some of the holes are considerably off. Here's one side:
![leftweldmentfront.jpg](/community/proxy.php?image=http%3A%2F%2Fpages.suddenlink.net%2Ftismuoi9%2Fleftweldmentfront.jpg&hash=889aa9840f0d21a4b336d97bdd3ec17b)
The weldments don't match the gear legs either. Here is the right gear leg top showing that the hole drilled is not the same.
![right%20gearlegbolt.jpg](/community/proxy.php?image=http%3A%2F%2Fpages.suddenlink.net%2Ftismuoi9%2Fright%2520gearlegbolt.jpg&hash=fb8514871554cae1fa5ea25ba69d7e2f)
My only conclusion is that the weldments were mixed up somehow when the kit was first shipped years ago and I got somebody else's weldments. Or else my weldments were just drilled on a factory jig somewhere, hoping they'd fit.
I have tried to recreate the geometry to see just how far off all the holes are when the landing gear is installed but so far I can't quite get the legs quite where they should be under the plane. I will probably have to enlarge the holes in the floor skin some more.
![gearlegfitting.jpg](/community/proxy.php?image=http%3A%2F%2Fpages.suddenlink.net%2Ftismuoi9%2Fgearlegfitting.jpg&hash=5387af2582217bc9218b3880ed7ecf99)
If I can get the parts to line up, I may be able to take the gear weldments and weld the 50 or so holes shut and re-drill and re-ream them. At least some of the re-drilling will have to be done with the plane upright and both assemblies clamped to the spar.
Has anybody done this? Is it advisable?
My only other good option is to buy all new weldments and gear legs. Vans has a set of legs and weldments that are supposedly match-drilled to each other. No guarantee that they will fit but at least the weldments will be a clean slate.
Has anybody else dealt with this?
Dave A.