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Cabin Top Install

January 26, 2021July 6, 2021 Brian 0 Comment Cabin Top

With the cabin top painted, my next major step forward was bonding the cabin top to the fuse. Prior to doing this I took a moment to verify that EVERYTHING that I needed to do was completed prior to installing the cabin top.

The last few items on my punch list were installation of the coat hanger for the aerosport overhead console, install the flanged ducts in the baggage bulkhead to feed air into the overhead console, match drilling the backing strip for the rear cabin top, and painting the glare shield.

I had a real mental block trying to figure out how to install the coat hanger hook in the aerosport overhead console. None of my “low profile” ratchets would fit between the console and the overhead to tighten the screws. I even ordered some hex head screws trying to get a wrench in there to tighten everything. Finally I remembered that the cabin top is fiberglass and I can fill/patch two holes without any real issue. It was quite easy to then install the hanger.

Next I placed the cabin to on the fuse and pulled out my windshield to mask off the area where I was planning to spray some black bed liner on the glare shield. It just so happened that just before I was going to go outside and start painting, I saw the Aerosport Products was offering a nice glareshield online that looked much better than anything I could have done myself. After a quick chat with my wife, I decided to not paint, but just purchase the Aerosport glareshield. Only thing wasted was some of my time, and a roll of tape.

After removing all the tape, I completed all the countersinking of the holes in the cabin top and prepped the backing strips. I initially thought that the side backing strips would be hidden by the Aerosport panels, but once everything was bonded in, I may not have been correct. We’ll after I finally install all the panels. Regardless I’ll have to do some touch up painting inside the cabin.

To feed air into the overhead console, I marked where I needed to install the flanged ducts, as well as the holes for the conduits. I ended up using a set of flanged ducts from Aircraft Spruce, however I may have been better off with the sets from Vans. End of the day, it all worked out as expected. I also drilled holes for the overhead conduits and pulled those through. Not sure if I need them, but easy enough to do now.

It was then time to install the cabin top. I mixed up a large batch of epoxy and flox and installed the cabin top filling any any gaps around the door with the epoxy and flox mix. I then riveted the rear edges of the cabin to the fuse below the rear windows with pull rivets and installed all the screws around the door frame to lock the cabin top in place with the epoxy cured.

With the cabin top installed, I realize that I have some touch-up to do around the doors and the cabin top backing strips, so I’m going to be crawling in with the paint gun a few times.

At this point (Early December 2020) I am paying for hangar space at Manassas Airport (EAA Chapter 186 Builder Hangar), but I’m obviously not ready to move yet. I do have a fire under me to get as much of the temperature dependent work done as quickly as possible, as well as all the painting, since the hangar is not insulated or heated. I’m also not allowed to do any painting in the hangar, so I’m trying to take full advantage of my nice heated workspace while I can.

Cabin Top – Overhead Console and Interior Paint

January 19, 2021January 19, 2021 Brian 0 Comment Cabin Top, Interior

I didn’t specifically speak about bonding the overhead console in the last post. Basically I followed the directions from Aerosport Products and used the Lord adhesive they sell (and plan to also use it for my windows). One suggestion is to purchase some additional dispenser tips when you do purchase from them.

It took me a long time to get comfortable with the process blending the overhead to the cabin top. Wasn’t sure the best way to keep the overhead as carbon fiber, and also paint the cabin top interior. After a number weekends trying different things, I finally came up with a method that seemed to work. I ended up masking off the cabin top so just the carbon fiber overhead console was exposed. I then sanded / scuffed the carbon fiber to remove all the shiny spots and cleaned everything really well with a wax and grease remover. Then I used some SEM adhesion promoted followed by a few coats of Spray Max 2k High Gloss Clearcoat. Once everything had dried, I pulled off my masking tape, only to find that I had some adhesion issues / coverage issues in a few places.

Masking off everything but the overhead console

To fix this, I sanded the whole top down with 800 grit sandpaper to scuff the clear coat and sanded the problem areas down until they were flat. Then another round of cleaning (I think I cleaned everything 2-3 times just to be sure). Then it was the same technique of SEM Adhesion Promoter, and multiple coats of Spray Max 2k clear. Final product was a nice clear-coat finish… almost. Honestly this time things worked much better. Not perfect, and saw I had plenty of “orange peel”. Still fantastic for my first time and clear coat out of a rattle can!

I spend a number of hours wet-sanding the clear coat to remove the orange peel, then purchased a DA buffer and some cutting / polishing compound. I didn’t take it up to a “showroom finish” but did get it to the point where most of the scratches were out and it had a really nice flat shine. Overall I’m really happy with the finish of the overhead console.

With the overhead console now clear coated, I then decided to permanently install the overhead switch pod. I used screws as well as a bead of Lord Adhesive as the switch pod will not come off. I masked off the are that would remain clear-coated and make some last touch ups needed on the overhead to cabin top transition.

Lastly I trimmed and permanently install the ends of the conduits into the switchpod and built up the transition from the switchpod to the cabin top to blend in the conduit. I’m actually starting to get a bit better with this process now that I’ve been doing it for a few months. Not that I think I could do an entire composite aircraft!

Next I start to spray some cheap high-build primer and start the process of progressively finer sanding until I get up to 800 grit. As I mentioned in an earlier post this year, I have struggled with colors and what I want to do with interior and exterior paint. After a lot of thought, I finally decided to pull the trigger on a paint color.

I decided to go with the Summit Racing HotRod Flat Paint – Grey I’ll admit that this was more of me just throwing my hands up and picking something vs a detailed analysis. I built a make shift paint boot and got a fresh set of respirator filters and went to work. I had no illusions that I would get a show quality paint job with my purple Harbor Freight spray gun, but I did at least want a pretty tough paint job without any shine.

The first part that I painted was the cabin top. Due to the gun quality, the paint ended up with a bit of a textured finish which actually looked pretty good for what I’m using it for. I think I put down 3 coats of paint (just to be sure) before I peeled up the masking on the overhead console. The end result I think looks pretty good and will work for a garage DIY job.

Once the cabin paint was dry, I moved the cabin top inside to get out of the way for a few weeks and started painting all the interior parts that are currently removable. Access Panels, side panels, and seat pans were all scuffed with grey scotchbright pads, cleaned and then sprayed. Then it was on to shifting my paint booth over the fuse and masking off the areas that needed to be protected. I did also remove the control approach pedals and hoses to keep them protected. I also masked off the firewall to ensure no paint got on the Stainless steel.

A few coats of paint really changed the entire look of the project and I’m really happy with the results. I have a few places that didn’t get good coverage (trying to lean into some areas was EXTREMELY difficult) and my lighting wasn’t really the best. I’m planning on doing a “touch up” coat in the next few weeks so hopefully I’ll get all those areas addressed.

All in all, LOTS of forward progress.

Cabin Top – Conduits and Sun visors

January 19, 2021January 19, 2021 Brian 0 Comment Cabin Top

So I’m a big fan of conduits just in case you need to pull a wire or change something in the future. For the cabin top, I had seen where others had installed conduits in the front cabin pillars to the overhead console and thought that was a fantastic idea. What I didn’t realize when I started down this path, was that this also had an impact on how I was going to have to mount my sun visors in the future and lead me down that path of getting creative.

Starting off, I decided to use some extra conduit from Vans that I purchased for my wings. It’s the 3/4″ stuff (I think) that fits nicely in the cabin top channel. I used a small batch of epoxy and flox to “glue” the conduit in place so I could use some spray foam insulation to create the general contour of the forward pillars.

Once the foam was cured, I sanded it down to a rough shape, then put a skim-coat of AeroPoxy Light on to fill the outer most voids in the foam. This gave me a general profile and protected the conduit. I’ll cover this with a 2-3 layers of fiberglass later.

Next I begin to lay out the overhead console. I marked the center of the cabin top and the overhead console. I then began to drill #40 holes and cleco the overhead to the cabin top. I’ll use these holes later when I bond the overhead to the cabin top.

I know I mentioned how much I like conduits, so no surprise that I also wanted some conduits from the overhead area to the rear of the aircraft. Now this wasn’t my original idea. Honestly most of my “mods” aren’t my original idea, but I do adapt them to fit my needs. Anyway, I made a few small aluminum strips to hold zip ties to the cabin top. I secured them with pop-rivets and used the zip ties to hold the conduit in place.

This is about the time I started to think about the visors. My original plan was to go with the Rosen visors, but decided to go a little cheaper and purchased the BlueSky visors. With the visors in hand, I had to come up with a mounting solution. The vendor instructions use a bock installed where I just ran the conduit so that won’t work. My first idea was to install a nutplate on a aluminum coupon for the visor to mount. I mounted this on the forward part of the pillar and contoured this in place. *Note this didn’t end up working. more later. I then glassed in the pillars and began to work on the overhead to cabin top transitions using Aeropoxy Light and lots of sanding.

When I put the cabin top back on the fuse and tried to verify that the sun visor mounts worked, I found that it didn’t. With the nutplates on the front of the pillars, it isn’t able to support it’s own weight. 🙁

After some thought, I realized I needed to move the mounting point so it faces the center support bar. I removed these original nutplates, and created a new mount bracket using some 3/4″ aluminum angle with a nutplate mounted on it. I cut out space on the pillars to make enough room for my new angle aluminum mounting bracket and installed the new brackets (now facing towards the white cabin brace) and covered it with two layers of glass. Next I spend time with some Aeropoxy Light and sanding blocks to contour everything and get it looking nice again. I also went around the overhead console where it joins to the cabin top and dressed up those areas with Aeropoxy Light and more sanding until things were looking good. One of the details I also did was to install a segment of the McMaster Carr door seal when applying the Aeropoxy Light. This allowed the door seal to be flush with the cabin top interior. Hopefully it turns out looking nice.

After I thought everything was looking good, I started to spray some rattle can high-build primer from Home Depot to help me get everything cleaned up. (Overhead was taped off when spraying primer). Once I had the inside door openings as well as the pillars and overhead transitions completed, Everything was sprayed with high-build primer and sanded (I think up to 800 grit) using some soft sanding blocks.

Slightly jumping ahead, here are some photos of the visors mounted. I’ll talk more about finishing the overhead console and switch pod in the next post.

Cabin Doors – Part 3

December 9, 2020December 9, 2020 Brian 0 Comment Doors

I have completed most of the work on the doors at this point. I have successfully installed the 180 degree plane around kit as well as the Aerosport Products low profile handles. This was tricky and while I took some video and photos, I’ll point you to Ed Kranz’s video.

I had originally purchased some Amazon door locks for the baggage compartment and doors, however I was never able to get them to fit properly with the low-profile doors. Path of least resistance was to go ahead and special order a set of 4 matching locks from ACS. They fit perfectly with no issues!

I then started to work on the McMaster Door seal mod. Honestly I had a really hard time wrapping my mind around how this would work. I had the great idea to purchase some 1/4 weather strip to help visualize and possible help with molding the flange. I installed the weather strip where I thought the seal should meet with the door, spread some epoxy and flox around the lip around the door opening, and closed the door so it could set. (Hint: this may help, but it doesn’t release from epoxy. This lead to a minor panic attack). Ended up climbing in from the other side to cut / tear the weather strip and sanding out what was embedded in the epoxy. Ugh!

OMG, what did I do! Thought I accidentally bonded the door to the cabin!

At this point I realized I had trimmed my cabin top door flange a little too far back. To fix this, laid up some strips of fiberglass on the interior of the door flange (poorly I might add). Once that was cured, I built up the area with epoxy and flox using the previous strips to support everything. I learned from my previous mistake and this time used the weather strips but covered everything in packing tap. I then closed the door to give me the needed clearance between the cabin top and the door.

The edge of this mess is where the flange should be. 🙁

With that adventure completed (at least on one door), I started the process of trimming all the excess. Cutoff wheel I used for original trimming of the flange worked perfect, followed by a lot of sanding of the interior to clean everything up. (Basically sanded away the fiberglass tape and some of the epoxy flox.). Wasted a bunch of supplies, but part of the learning process.

Not everything worked perfectly, had a few places where my new flange broke off while I was sanding. I just scarfed the surrounding area and built it up again. I’ll say that’s the one thing about fiberglass I do like, it’s not too hard to repair, it just takes time.

Oops, didn’t mean for that to break off.

With the door flanges build up to the correct width, I then moved on to using a length of the McMaster door seals as a mold to get the right depth for flange. I mixed more more epoxy and flox and using a piping bag I squeezed the mix into the seal. I then installed on the door flange and closed the door to allow to cure. This gave me a custom fit flange for the door seal. Once the entire opening was completed, I removed the cabin top to start finishing in inside.

Engine ordered and general updates

August 4, 2020August 4, 2020 Brian 2 Comments Engine

So I finally broke down an ordered my engine. I had been chatting with Aerosport Power for a few months and was planning on visiting them to do the “Engine Build School” and actually build my engine, however due to the state of the world, this is just not possible. Sigh. I was extremely excited to do the build class, however after talking over things with Darren at Aerosport Power I decided to just order the engine and have it shipped to me.

The only possible silver lining is that I may be able to visit them once things calm down and do the build school eventually, even if it’s just on the shop teaching engine. Already have this on my list of things to do with the RV-10 once it’s done.

At this point I’m admitting that I’m just way behind in editing videos. I’ll be honest, I’m not sure if I’m going to post more videos. While this work from home situation has some benefits, I really just feel like I spend way too much time behind the monitor as it is. Maybe if things slow down a bit I’ll go back and try to edit some updates, but for now I’m just continuing to shoot some time lapse videos for my records and will continue to update this blog.

Currently I’m only making small progress on the build as I have a few big items on the to-do list. I have done some body work on the cabin top interior, installed the conduits on the door pillars and done some contouring and finishing work to try to make things look nice. I just got a shipment from AerosportProducts that included carpet, the interior panels, and the Lord adhesive for the overhead console and the windows. This was kinda holding me up for a few weeks.

I’m hoping that I’ll be able to get the overhead console installed this weekend, and work on getting the finishing work done on the cabin top. I also ordered the Blue Sky visors and working on a plan on how to mount them. Typically the mount to the door pillars, but since I installed a conduit there, I’ll need to create a mount-point somehow. This means I have to get creative with some fiberglass I guess.

I also think I will be moving to the airport in the next few months. Waiting on things to finalize out, but looks like I may be moving in November (around the time my engine is scheduled to be ready?). Timing may actually be perfect if all goes to plan.