Project: MattJ     -     Entry

Jun 08, 2021 26 Fitting the Doors and Latches Category: Fuselage
The fitting of the doors and latches has been more of a challenge than expected. After mounting of the hook latching to the doors ot became evident that the latches won't clear the fuselage lip. The passenger door was significantly ill fitting. After looking carefully at the door and canopy it became evident the canopy center portion where the doors bolt was slightly askew. Add to to how the door fits in the fuselage made things problem. I took a lot of measurements and sent them to the TAF. They came back with the advice of of bending the latches to fit however, that much bend would not allow the latch to properly retract. TAF said they would get back to me but I haven't heard back.

After some consultation with an IA I came up with a plan.

1) Treat the door installation as a new install.
2) Fill the TAF drilled bolt holes where the hinges attach with epoxy
3) Re-align the hinges with the best fit possible.
4) find the high spots and sand door and fuselage edges, in general, a bit of reshaping the door to fit.

Finally, I extended the passenger door rear latch hook out a couple of mm with a new spacer. I used 5/16 bar stock and made a new handle center post that is slightly longer than the supplied and tapped a new screw mount to hold the forward latch hook.

Today I put everything together and got the passenger door mounted. Not going to lie... It's ugly but it will now open/close/lock.


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