Composite Doors

[rodsmith]

Finally painted my doors so thought I would post some construction pictures. Doors are 3/8", 3 pound divinycell foam with 2 layers of carbon fiber on the exterior and 2 layers of fiberglass on the inside. I spent a lot of time contemplating how to do this and finally realized the only way to get a good fit was to use the airframe as the form. The rear passenger door weights 4 pounds with all hardware and 3 pounds for the baggage door, which I think is a significant savings. If I had a kit with nice premade doors, there is no way I would have gone to the trouble. I don't think these took longer to build than steel frame and aluminum. What took significantly longer for me was the finishing. I lost track of how many iterations of sanding/filling I went through and I still have a few pin holes. Someone with more composite experience would probably have better luck with that. I am very happy with the tight fit to the fuselage and the way they look. The latch for the rear passenger door is Bob's design. I machined an aluminum housing for it since it isn't buried in the structure. Still working on the front doors.

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[noema]

Nice work! One question, how did you attach the hinges. Did you embed them in the composite structure during the layup?

[svyolo]

My stock kit doors are about 5 and 6 pounds.

[rodsmith]

Nice work! One question, how did you attach the hinges. Did you embed them in the composite structure during the layup?

At the hinge and latch locations I used hardwood inserts. Luckily my brother-in-law has a planer so I was able to match the thickness of the foam.

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[noema]

Oh yeah, I can see that working well.

[nborer]

Those look great! Adding to the file of things to aspire to...

[Gerhard Rieger]

Well done, thats what experimental all about

[Westward_Flyer]

Amazing work! How did you install the windows, epoxied into place?

[BravoGolf]

Very nice. Something else to bookmark for later

[rodsmith]

Amazing work! How did you install the windows, epoxied into place?

That's essentially what I did. The lexan is free to expand. I used sikaflex caulk around the edges instead of having the lexan tight against the foam.