I had actually started to assemble the Baggage Door itself a while ago when I was waiting to get my wife to assist with some riveting. The door itself is pretty straightforward. Bending the pre-cut channel and cleco to the outer door skin. then cleco on the lock bracket in place and add the inner skin. Match drill everything, disassemble, deburr and prime all but the outer skin.
I wanted to do the same “mod” that Ed and Colleen did on their baggage door. I cut the hinge to length, and cut the center three eyelets back just enough to get the hinge wire out. I then put the door in place on the airplane to mark where the door side hinge should sit. I found that by using a piece of gorilla tape on the fuse skin edges, I could make “shims” to better center the door and have a consistent gap. This seemed to work well for me.
Once the hinge locations were marked on the door, I did my best to eyeball how proud the eyelets should protrude from the skin. I then drilled the holes basically following the directions from VANS, and began to rivet everything together.
When I went to hold the door in the opening, I realized that I didn’t have the hinge where I wanted it. Crud. It was a little low, so I needed to drill out the inner skin that I already installed with pop rivets, and then drill out the hinge. I did that successfully, and used a strap duplicator to re-locate a new hinge piece where I wanted it. Match drilled everything again, primed the new hinge piece, and reinstalled. Looked much better.
I then went to my scrap pile and found some scrap .063 aluminum and cut some “shims” to go between the substructure and the outer door skin. I taped these to the door so the scrap was at the edge of the skin and the gorilla tape acted as a centering shim just like before. I installed the door post in the airplane and modified the clecos per the plans.
I swear you need 7 hands for the next step. Holding the door in place, putting pressure on the plane hinge so it sits flat against the door post while also lifting up so the door doesn’t drop the .035″, and holding the drill while you try to make the first hole. Somehow I did this with some measure of success. I also tied to drill the top most hole as high as possible with my right angle drill. This is great, but doesn’t allow a cleco to be installed. Drill a hole or two further down, and cleco goes in just fine. Now I can see the door swing.
Ok, so the door will not fold flat against the airplane but does open enough to get luggage in. I’m leaving it for now as it looks like it will work. I’ll have to see if this will be a problem for paint scraping (maybe some wear tape on the door edge in my future?)
I also ordered locks from the aviation department of Amazon. Got the 7/8″ version that worked great. I didn’t used the lock arm from Vans, but the one included in these locks were perfect. Only thing it didn’t have was the tabbed washer that I’ll have to order from VANS next time I place an order for something. At least I now have 4 locks (2 doors + Baggage + spare). I’ll have to make extra keys, but happy so far.
With all of this done, I just have to disassemble, deburr, prime anything that needed it and rivet everything together. I then install the doors and they look great. Only thing I still need is the weatherstripping to put around the door edge so it doesn’t rattle.