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Fuselage building question: bolts

F

fehdxl

Well Known Member
On page 28-9, the Mid Fuselage Assembly is joined with the Forward Fuselage Assembly with the spacers acting as the wing spar. Question to the group, did you use the actual bolts for this or hardware-store brand surrogates? I was going down the hardware-store path but there is some slop as the real bolts are the tight-fit style. Thanks in advance! Jim. 40603

Keywords
F-1076
F-1072
Fwd bulkhead assembly
Fwd fuse bottom skin
F-1004
 
Thanks Mike, it was the non-tight-tolerance that concerned me...I'll build on. Good to be back at it...moving and setting up a new shop really slows progress. Fly safe, Jim
 
Use 4 close tolerance bolts and 4 hardware store bolts...

Use one large close tolerance bolt in most outboard larger hole with no nut. Apply boelube, hold thin plates together on frt/rear of spars to prevent bending, tap with rubber mallet/deadblow hammer until bolthead seats. Do this for top and bottom of both sides. Then install hardware bolts with washer under nut and head in most outboard smaller hole, torque to approx 75 in-lbs. Hardware bolts will keep compression on your 13 shim stackup(4 ea).

The reason for this is to ensure front and rear sections are in perfect alignment during match drilling, then again during riveting. I only removed bolts one at a time to gain access for drilling/riveting, then immediately reinstalled before going to next bolt.

When you get ready to install wings you will not have to beat/pry so much to get the bolts installed. I will be finished with Sec 29 tomorrow:D. My bolts require no prying whatsoever to install now that all riveting is complete/gear mounts installed. Just light tapping with plastic drift and deadblow hammer.
 
As a follow-up, here's a picture of how I decided to line things up.

The small bolts are hardware-store quality just for temporary use. Just using the large bolts for alignment, no nuts required.



Hopefully I'll be bending the side skins later this week.

-Jim
40603
 
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