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Securing cowl hinges

Janekom

Well Known Member
Patron
If I remember correctly one is supposed to use resin or tank sealant between the hinges and the cowl.
I cannot find anything in the RV10 plans.
What are you guys using?
Thanks.
Jan.
 
Proseal, Epoxy, Resin....

They all work. Make sure you rough up the hinge well to give it some bite. The idea is to have some kind of additional surface area bonding to prevent the rivets from working on the fiberglass.
 
I've also seen a few folks who will lay down a 1" strip of glass over the heads of the rivets on the exterior of the fuselage.

Makes for a nice smooth cowling and provides a little bit more support of the rivet heads on the manufactured head.
 
I've also seen a few folks who will lay down a 1" strip of glass over the heads of the rivets on the exterior of the fuselage.

Do this to keep the heads from popping through the paint eventually, especially if you do not use a plenum.

Also, I'd use proseal before epoxy. That proseal sticks like heck to just about everything.
 
cowl hinges

we used lord acrylic adhesive for the cowl hinges. its what my son uses at his work building racing shells. they use it for non like materials bonding. like the cowl where you have an aluminum to epoxy bond. we did tests first to see what kind of bond we'd get. with the epoxy glue, the hinge popped right off. with the lord adhesive you had to destroy the hinge to get it off. if you are interested i will provide you with product # of material and we have pictures of our tests as well.
regards
-K-
 
Just another thought - what about Sikaflex?
I found Sikaflex a very nice product to work with and to do all sorts of bonding with. For example -bonding close out rings (around the windows ) to the insides of the doors and cabin.
If it can keep the canopy on a 7 surely is will do it's job on the cowl hinges as well.
 
cowl hinges

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hope this works first time trying to insert pics. any way this is the product I use at work. we use it for bonding non like materials together. its very tenacious stuff. in the past we have had problems with bonding epoxy to polyester, epoxy to aluminum etc. have had failures in the field that produces unhappy customers. we started using the lord a couple of years ago. we have not had a failure in the field with it. the test we did for the cowl hinges was sanding both the hinge and the oildoor cutout with 80 grit and clecoed them together with the lord. no rivets for test. the epoxy popped right away sorry dont have pics of that. the lord adhesive stuck to both the aluminum and the oildoor and if you notice it also pulled some of the oildoor off with the hinge. if you want to know anything else let me know.
thanks
Erik Westlund
 
Here's the Pic

Here you go Ken:
9jqf43.jpg


Just click a cursor into the box under "IMG Code for Forums & Message Boards" and paste it (CTRL-V) into your message (it copies automatically)

Hans
 
cowl hinges

hey guys
I found plexus on jamestown dist. that would probably be better suited for rv builders as far as use and availability. the plexus is basically the same thing as the lord adhesive. basically coke vs. pepsi difference, but its still a methacrylate acrylic adhesive. i have done test with it as well and its pretty strong. way better for composite to metal bonding than using epoxy. heres the link to the product on jamestown.
happy building
Erik Westlundhttp://http://www.jamestowndistributors.com/userportal/show_product.do?pid=4882&familyName=Plexus+MA+310+High+Strength+Plastic+Adhesive
 
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