[Jeff Vaughan]

What's is the designation for the pop rivets that secure the steps to the side of the fuse on a 7A. Replacing both of my steps after finding cracks. I can't find my drawing

 

[Vlad]

MSP-42 it says in installation instructions.

 

[Rick_A]

Pop rivets?

Interesting. When I did mine I used AN470-4 solid rivets. When did Vans switch to pull rivets for the steps?

BTW. If I have to removed my steps it's going to be a bear. I installed a doubler on the inside and I used proseal on the steps on the exterior as well as on the doubler.

 

[bret]

Just a short side step...Any one here do Anti splat's idea of filing the step with sand trick?

 

[krw5927]

No sand, but I did decide to be a bit of a guinea pig and attach my steps with plain LP4-3 blind rivets. With 18 of them in each step on the 9A, you could easily lift the plane by the steps and then some. With the long history of cracking steps I wanted to be able to (relatively) easily remove it.

I'm not flying yet so it may turn out to be a mistake, but I've been up and down on each step probably hundreds of times in the build and all is well so far.

 

[Paul K]

Rick,

I did the same thing. Not looking forward to having to replace the steps someday but when I do, it will still be solid rivets and proseal.

I think we overdid the installation with the proseal and doublers, that doesn't appear to be the week area of the steps. Never heard of a failure at the connection however the proseal addresses the rust problem I witnessed observing other steps done in the past with rust streeks running down the side and bottom below the steps.

 

[Jeff Vaughan]

Thanks Vlad.

Rick is was an option in the instrutions that I can not find.

Very easy to drill out!