Anti-Spalt Mod- Thread Creep Coming Up!
OK. I am not a builder, so I had to get comfortable with drilling out rivets and bucking in new rivets before tackling this job. To do this, I built one of Van's $25 tool boxes. To do this, I bought about $400 worth of tools and rivets from The Yard and Spruce. Like most of you guys, I really just needed an excuse to buy some serious builder tools, including a squeezer and a 2X gun.
I watched Allan's video carefully, and found it to be pretty close. I drilled out the existing rivets holding the Van's bar and cut it in half to remove it. No going back now! Several of the rivets were hard to get to because they were way under the roller track for the slider. Long drill bits are necessary. A sharp chisel also helped. The cockpit needed to be spread slightly to get the new bar in place. It was a little tricky getting the bar ends up flush and not interfering with the shop heads of the rivets coming in from the side, but it fits well.
I riveted the new bar in per Allan's instructions. I had asked Allan to include the necessary rivets for us non-builders, which he did. He may be including these with new shipments. I used both the squeezer and gun because of the rivet locations. The assembly is then drilled for the bolts going down through the canopy stops. I probably put in more rivets than necessary, but hey, I got to justify those new tools!
I did not track the time, but I spent probably 8-10 hours total on the project. I was spending a lot of time thinking it through, since I am not an experienced builder, and I worked alone. I could do it again in less than half the time.
I sit farther back now and have so much headroom that I installed the small booster pad under my Classic Aero seat cushion to keep my sight line the same. By laying my seat back against the bar and using the flap on the PAX seat, my right shoulder can go behind the PAX left sholder a little, adding to the apparent cabin width. I am considering installing another set of hinges on the floor about 1" back to get more leg room. Shouldn't be hard, now that I have tools and rivets on hand...
Doug
RV-9A