Door sill treatment

[rodsmith]

I don't think fabric and paint will hold up on the door sills. I know some are using 26 ga stainless, for all the door sills that would be 2#. Has anyone found something else lighter than stainless that is working out?

[tailwind]

I made them from aluminum. If figure if it gets scratched I will just replace them.

[swpilot3]

Same here. I just made them of aluminum. They seem to be holding up fine.

[Mark Moyle]

I used 301 half hard stainless steel...pretty sure it was 0.016” used a leaf brake maybe 1/16” wider than the sill, bends are greater than 90. They more or less snap into place...the screws just retain the formed channel. Used stainless number 4 sheet metal screws used to assemble piper wings...the head is fairly flat.

[rodsmith]

That really looks nice Mark.

[Archer39J]

That looks great! Question about Bravo kits though where we're to attach the aluminum formers to the steel fuselage with protruding pop rivets. If I then want to put a cover plate on top of that the protruding heads of the former rivets would clash. Has anyone with a Bravo kit reached that point yet? What did you do?

[rodsmith]

Tailwind and Bobby, did you paint, polish or just leave the aluminum as installed. One thought that came to mind is exploring a rough powdercoat treatment on the aluminum. Might end up close to the weight of stainless though. Too many decisions!

[jaredyates]

I always thought I'd make up some sort of skid plate for the door sills. It's still on my to-do list but remains one of the things left undone, 5 years and 350 hours later. There are a few marks on the fabric but it's not enough to expedite that task up the list. But as anyone knows who has seen our airplane, you'll know that it's not intended to be a beauty queen, so your results may vary as they say.

[tailwind]

I left the aluminum (2024 T3) as finished from the factory.

[Battson]

I used the lightest stainless I can find. It holds up extremely well. Weight isn't too bad. Less than a packed lunch... of course it all adds up, but I am still waiting to see if it matters.

[jim.mclaughlin924]

On my previous plane, I just used the 3M clear leading edge protector tape. Looked good and lasted 10yrs.

[zkelley2]

On my previous plane, I just used the 3M clear leading edge protector tape. Looked good and lasted 10yrs.

I was thinking some UHMW tape would do a good job as well.

[Glenn Patterson]

We used aluminum that was painted to match interior then used clear mylar film used for protecting car paint from stones and wear. Mylar is super tough and looks good.