Belly Metal

[AKKen07]

I am wrapping up the initial cutting and clecoing of the boot cowl and have arrived at the belly piece that spans the gap between tunnel and stringers. I plan to run fabric under the doors and really don’t have a good idea of how I am going to shape/fasten this piece. I see the forward attachment at the tunnel and aft at the tabs on the 3/8 tubing but the sides and “bat ear corners” (pointy corners that stick aft?) are dumbfounding me. All the pictures and explanations that I can find utilize the sheet metal under the door as an attach point. Can anybody with fabric under the door (or who is familiar with the result) help me out with some pictures/description of how this has been handled? Thank you in advance!
Ken

[svyolo]

Actually I have the same question, but in reverse. I want to use aluminum under the door all the way to station D. But the bottom will be fabric aft of station C/the stock piece supplied with the kit. I was planning on mounting an angle on the bottom, flush with the fabric, and wrap the side aluminum around the lower longeron and attach it to that piece of angle. And I am there now, so I need to sort it out soon.

[Battson]

If you are running fabric under the doors, then I would consider cutting off the "ears" - noting this is hard to undo.

The ears are intended to line up with the metal under the door. Without it, they would look out of place.

If cutting off the ears, you will need to thing about how to secure the loose ends of the belly metal. You don't want them beating on the fabric.

One consideration, the gear leg fairing would need to be made with greater care if the metal ears and under-door panels are removed. The gear leg fairings move around a lot, they could easily wear through the fabric.

[AKKen07]

Good point about fairings rubbing. I was hoping to avoid a clamped angle arrangement. Seems kind of hokey to me but maybe not so bad...

[whee]

Good point about fairings rubbing. I was hoping to avoid a clamped angle arrangement. Seems kind of hokey to me but maybe not so bad...

I didn’t like the clamped angle arrangement either and couldn’t see the reason for it . I’ll try to post later about how I did it. Basically everything below the door is all aluminum.

[AKKen07]

Looking forward to it!

[whee]

Ken, I’m treading water here trying to not drown. Hoping to make time tonight to find the pics and post about how I did it. I haven’t forgotten!

[AKKen07]

Don’t drown! I’m starting to copy Alaska Bearhawk’s method, so no urgency. Almost have the side door panels done through the back of the door. I think I’ll cut the ears off the belly piece anyway so I don’t have to add any angles and whatnot.

[whee]

Ken, I'm glad you mentioned AKbearhawk. I just looked up his kitlog page and he is doing it pretty much the same way I did except I don't plan to remove mine so they are riveted on. I don't have any good pics of my installation but Paul has the method well layed out, as usual.

Here's a few not great pics from my build.

[AKKen07]

Ah very nice, thanks for posting that! So you must rivet that on after covering, so to recover in 20 years... drill out the rivets? I think that’s what I would do too. Did you use flush pop rivets like Paul?

[whee]

Right, install after covering and drill out the rivets to remove the panel to recover. We used regular solid rivets but only because that is the look we wanted.

[AKKen07]

Gracias Amigo!