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Turtle Deck Hole Alignment

J

JohnF

Well Known Member
I clecoed the right turtle deck skin on in order to temporarily fit the fuel tank and its filler assembly. I found the top end of the turtle deck skin is way off from aligning with the holes in the side brackets that are attached to the baggage bulkhead and the sides of the reinforcement piece (box-like piece) that connects the roll bar and the baggage bulkhead skin...the rest of the turtle deck skin holes line up perfectly with the side skin and the upper side skin. I think the misalignment is around 3/8th of an inch...the side brackets can only be installed one way so I cannot see how this misalignment could have happened.

The only solution I see is to drill the needed holes to rivet things as intended. Did you have any problems in this area? I may have to bother Van's folks if I can't resolve my problem.

JohnF
 
JohnF said:
I clecoed the right turtle deck skin on in order to temporarily fit the fuel tank and its filler assembly. I found the top end of the turtle deck skin is way off from aligning with the holes in the side brackets that are attached to the baggage bulkhead and the sides of the reinforcement piece (box-like piece) that connects the roll bar and the baggage bulkhead skin...the rest of the turtle deck skin holes line up perfectly with the side skin and the upper side skin. I think the misalignment is around 3/8th of an inch...the side brackets can only be installed one way so I cannot see how this misalignment could have happened.

The only solution I see is to drill the needed holes to rivet things as intended. Did you have any problems in this area? I may have to bother Van's folks if I can't resolve my problem.

JohnF
Click to expand...

Adhere to old RV-12 builders proverb...

If holes don't line up...something is wrong!

It might be something fitted incorrectly or it might be something wrong with the parts. Regardless of what the cause, the problem should be determined before you start drilling new holes.
 
I agree with Scott 100%. When some of the holes align and others don't, you screwed up. Either the parts are in backwards, upside down or swapped left for right. Van's intentionally designs a couple of holes with a different spacing on one part to save your butt. Don't ask how I know. Don't drill the holes.
 If you continue to have a problem, call Van's Support. Also marking the parts with a Sharpie before removing the ID tag helps prevent using the wrong part.

Art Pennanen
 
I can't remember any holes being more than 1/32" off before clecos. Maybe on the wing tips, but they pulled togeather with the clecos. Never drill new holes!
 
Hole Alignment

After careful inspection of all parts involved, and determing that everything was the right part, installed correctly, I came to the conclusion that the misalignmenty was what I call "drift" of parts.

I restarted clecoing things back together making sure each clecoe was vertical in its hole, and things were pushed/pulled as tight as possible.

When the turtle deck skins' holes/clecoes reached the top together, the holes came into alignment so that I could put rivets in them
.
I think that there were too many parts all trying to occupy the same space, and things got somewhat misaligned.

Anyhow its now all together and riveted.

Thanks for the advice.

JohnF
 
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