Just completed SB 00007 Rev2 and found it to be a horrific job. All and all it took about 150 hoiurs (3 people)
I detected minor cracks on the forward floors which I stopdrilled but VANs support advised to te replace the supports. The plane has about 1000 hours and about 80% hard surface landings.
The first 500 hours we suffered from hard to solve shimmy issues. Found better quallity well balanced tires and better brake discs solved the problem.
Getting the old supports out was a nightmare which took many days. A number of the bolts were impossible to remove from the spars due to minor corrosion traces. At the spar topside where access is ok I got them all out in the end.
It is amazing how these eat themselved in.
At the lower side access is zero an all you can do is spray anti corrosion and use a long wrench on the head, untill they break #€&#@
With heads sheared off there is still no way to get the supports out, so I had to chop them up which is dangerous and required a special saw,
I ended up with 4 shanks of which I managed to drill out 3 with a purpose machined drillguide and #40 drill inceasing the drillsize in small steps.
One was broken in a way this method did not work either and the 40 drill broke and a piece stayed inside. In the end I used a Dremel to grind it level with the spar and drilled a new hole in the support and spar.
Installing the new supports was not easy either but doable in a reasoble time.
Everything hurts, bloody fingers and hands but its done.
I think I prefer to build a new plane when another SB like this pops up
I detected minor cracks on the forward floors which I stopdrilled but VANs support advised to te replace the supports. The plane has about 1000 hours and about 80% hard surface landings.
The first 500 hours we suffered from hard to solve shimmy issues. Found better quallity well balanced tires and better brake discs solved the problem.
Getting the old supports out was a nightmare which took many days. A number of the bolts were impossible to remove from the spars due to minor corrosion traces. At the spar topside where access is ok I got them all out in the end.
It is amazing how these eat themselved in.
At the lower side access is zero an all you can do is spray anti corrosion and use a long wrench on the head, untill they break #€&#@
With heads sheared off there is still no way to get the supports out, so I had to chop them up which is dangerous and required a special saw,
I ended up with 4 shanks of which I managed to drill out 3 with a purpose machined drillguide and #40 drill inceasing the drillsize in small steps.
One was broken in a way this method did not work either and the 40 drill broke and a piece stayed inside. In the end I used a Dremel to grind it level with the spar and drilled a new hole in the support and spar.
Installing the new supports was not easy either but doable in a reasoble time.
Everything hurts, bloody fingers and hands but its done.
I think I prefer to build a new plane when another SB like this pops up
