Vans RV-4 N53KT reborne - For sale when complete

Monday, 7/5/2010

2010-07-05T19:26:00.001-07:00

Riveted on outboard aileron bracket

Riveted on inboard aileron bracket

Attached top skins for final riveting.

Sunday 7/4/2010

2010-07-04T16:56:00.000-07:00

The holes that were match drilled onto the main spar from the fuel tank had to be enlarged to a #19 size, then #40 holes drilled on either side of the main hole that match the dimensions of the plate nuts that will be installed in them. Holes were dimpled and/or countersunk where it was not possible to dimple them and plate nuts were riveted to the spars.

Platenuts were installed on the leading edge rib strip. These platenuts are use to attach the fuel tank to the leading edge rib.

The innermost platenuts have to be slightly ground off on the top side because of interference with the main spar web straps.

With the platenuts installed on the bottom of the main spar web for the fuel tanks, the wing skins are now ready to be riveted to the ribs and spar. Total time today 8.5 hrs.

Saturday 7/3/2010

2010-07-03T16:36:00.001-07:00

Inserted and prosealed vent fitting to on first fuel tank rib. This fitting lets air into the tank as fuel is used to equalize pressure.

Other side of same rib showing the vent line attached to the AN fitting.

The other end of the vent line goes to the last rib and is held in place by an aluminum strip that is riveted to the fuel cap fitting. Its the highest point in the tank so no fuel will get in the vent line.

Before the tank is closed up, its a good idea to bend the float bar to the correct position so the float will go to the top of the tank and also to the bottom of the tank The float bar comes as a straight piece of metal. You have to play with it to get it to fit the tank correctly.

Float on bottom on tank to simulate a "no fuel" condition.

Its also a good idea to put an ohmmeter on the lead of the fuel level sensor and make sure the resistance varies as the float moves from the bottom position to the top position. These Stewart Warner senders are actually used commercial trucks (big rigs) and Vans adapted them to the RV series.

Fuel tank is ready to have back plate installed then to be pressure tested for leaks.

Sunday 6/27/2010

2010-06-27T21:58:00.001-07:00

Finished prosealing and riveting the 2 outside ribs to the fuel tank.

Alodyned the fuselage attach brackets and reinforcing ribs.

Prosealed and rivet the brackets to the fuel tank.

Left tank ribs all compete.

Saturday 6/26/2010

2010-06-26T17:38:00.000-07:00

Prosealed and riveted the three middle ribs into the left fuel tank.

Sunday 6/20/2010

2010-06-20T20:34:00.001-07:00

Prosealed and riveted the fuel cap to the fuel tank.

Prosealed and riveted the fuel drain to the fuel tank.

Saturday 6/19/2010

2010-06-19T20:30:00.001-07:00

Set up left fuel tank to rivet and proseal bottom stiffener angles. The proseal keeps the tanks from leaking from around the rivets.

Finished prosealing and rivets bottom stiffeners

Thursday 6/17/2010

2010-06-17T17:28:00.000-07:00

Riveted on rear spar to wing ribs.

Sunday 6/13/2010

2010-06-13T18:27:00.002-07:00

Finished dimpling all main ribs and rear spar. Installed angles to main ribs 1 through 7 and installed back onto the main spar for the last time. Installed AN3 bolts and nuts to main ribs 1 through 7. Pop riveted ribs to main spar with L4-3 pop rivets and riveted other ribs when you can get to both sides to buck.

Riveted aileron bellcrank support angles and cross braces to ribs.

Saturday 6/12/2010

2010-06-12T21:43:00.002-07:00

The picture shows a special Averys tool for putting a slight crease along the edge of an aluminum sheet. This helps the sheet to lay flat after riveting it.

Leading edge clecoed together and ready to rivet.

But first, you need to install all of the main ribs and make sure all bolts and nuts line up in the appropriate holes. If there is a problem, you dont want to have to drill out a bunch of rivets to fix it.

Orange goop on nut shows its been tightened to the proper torque.

Leading edge riveting completed. time 7.5 hrs

Sunday 6/6/2010

2010-06-06T21:27:00.002-07:00

110 degree heat with direct sun in the afternoon on the southwest facing hanger means unbearable temps inside the hanger. Limited electrical to each hanger means you can't run an evap cooler and a compressor at the same time so its time to move the work back home.

Jig resetup in garage. Continued with cutting the hole in the main spar for the wing tie-down ring.

6/5/2010

2010-06-05T18:19:00.002-07:00

Did some more priming and finished riveting leading edge of right wing. 5 hrs.

05/30/2010

2010-05-29T21:48:00.002-07:00

Finished deburring and dimpling all wing skins for right wing. 7 hrs.

05/16/2010

2010-05-16T21:58:00.003-07:00

All right wing main ribs, leading edge ribs, rear spar and other pieces epoxy coated and ready for final assembly in wing jig. 11 hrs

05/15/2010

2010-05-15T21:39:00.001-07:00

All ribs acid etched and dipped in the alodine solution. Dipping works much better than spraying or brushing the alodine solution on. I found 20 seconds of dipping was ideal versus the recommended 1 to 3 minutes of recommended time when you brush the solution on. 5 hrs

5/2/2010

2010-05-15T21:37:00.001-07:00

Wing ribs ready for acid etching, alodining and epoxy priming to make them moisture proof.

04/24/2010

2010-04-25T09:27:00.001-07:00

Added small covers for the outside bottoms of the outside ribs on the tank. There is a big gap there where the two rib flanges are cut off before they were bent over.

2009-12-26T17:39:00.000-07:00

Between work-work and home-work, I havent accomplished much this week.

12/13/2009

2009-12-13T18:13:00.001-07:00

12/12/2009

2009-12-12T18:11:00.001-07:00

12/11/2009

2009-12-11T18:11:00.001-07:00

12/6/2009

2009-12-06T18:09:00.001-07:00

11/25/2009

2009-11-25T18:08:00.001-07:00

11/24/2009

2009-11-24T18:07:00.001-07:00

11/22/2009

2009-11-22T18:05:00.001-07:00

11/19/2009

2009-11-19T18:04:00.001-07:00

11/15/2009

2009-11-15T18:03:00.001-07:00

11/13/2009

2009-11-13T18:01:00.002-07:00

11/12/2009

2009-11-12T17:59:00.001-07:00

11/11/2009

2009-11-11T17:58:00.001-07:00

11/1/2009

2009-11-01T17:56:00.001-07:00

10/31/2009

2009-10-31T16:54:00.001-07:00

10/21/2009

2009-10-21T16:52:00.001-07:00

10/17/2009

2009-10-17T16:50:00.001-07:00

Christmas Eve, 2008

2008-12-24T13:43:00.000-07:00

After laying off all summer because of the intense heat in the hanger here in Phoenix in the afternoons when I get off work, I am motivated to start working hard again. I have been working on the wifes airplane a lot this summer and fall though. I plan to make a lot of progress on the RV-4 this winter.

right wing skins

2008-06-09T19:37:00.001-07:00

Before I drilled the ribs to the skins, I did one last check of the straightness of the ribs by laying a straightedge from the marked locations for the top and bottom hole for each rib and adjusted as required. A sharpie pen then drew a line down each rib. When the skins are put in place for riveting, the line should show through the holes in the skin.

Bottom inboard skin clecoed on.

Top skins clecoed on.

Right wing cont.....

2008-06-01T20:59:00.002-07:00

Drilled and clecoes all of the right wing main ribs to the rear spar.

Right wing cont...

2008-05-26T16:59:00.001-07:00

Finished drilling and fitting the leading edge ribs that go on the front side of the spar.

The angles were temporarily attached with old AN hardware and Ace hardware nuts for ease of removal. New AN nuts and bolts will be used in the final assembly.

RV-6a Wing Mounting Cont...

2008-05-04T15:47:00.000-07:00

Mounted the right wing to the RV-6a today.

Set up the right wing spar for the RV-4 in the wing jig now that the RV-6 wing was removed.

Wing fitting on RV-6a

2008-05-03T21:16:00.001-07:00

Finished riveting the final outside skins on the left and wings on Friday.
Saturday, I fitted the right wing to the RV-6a fuselage. It was interesting to remove the wing from the jig and insert it into the fuselage all by myself. I made some temporary fixtures that I could use to move the wing a little at a time. The rear spar attach bracket fit perfectly to the rear spar. (sigh of relief!)

The wing spars for the RV-4 and the RV-4 are in the background of the picture.

April 27th, 2008 RV-6a left wing

2008-04-27T21:31:00.000-07:00

Today we riveted the bottom outside skin for the left wing. The plans say to do the top skins last, which is what we did on the right wing. Its a little more difficult to do the bottom wing skins last, but the theory was that the top skins would look better if we did them first.
We have a final row of rivets to do yet, then we will mount the wings to the fuselage at long last.

We almost forgot to run the conduit for the electrical wiring inside the wing before closing it all the was up. It helps to have a long reach for this if you forget.

April 26th, 2008 RV-6a Wing Skins

2008-04-26T17:49:00.000-07:00

Today we took a slight break from working on the RV-4 and decided to finish riveting the final skins on each RV-6a wing so we can mount them to the fuselage.
RV4 chick does a great job riveting.

Outer top right wing skin is riveted.
Now for the left wing which you can see in the backround on the left side of the picture below. The rivets on the bottom of the top wing skins will be riveted with the pneumatic squeezer later. It needs the outer bottom skin riveted in place. Its getting pretty hot during the day now in Arizona. Thank God we have a big evap cooler we use to keep us cool. We can only run it on low though or the circuit breakers will pop when the air compressor (or our neighbor's compressor) comes on. We are thinking about getting a portable gas powered A/C generator to put in the back of the truck to run the cooler on so we can use a higher setting.

April 24th, 2008 Right wing cont...

2008-04-24T21:42:00.000-07:00

Set us a little jig template to use to drill the holes in the bottom of the rigs. One side does the inside ribs and the other side of the angle does the outer ribs.

Below the rib is drilled to the spar with #40 drill and clecoed to rib. It will be final drilled to #30 before priming ribs.

Outer ribs are all drilled and clecoed.

Inner ribs are all drilled and clecoed.
Most of the inner ribs also have a 3/4 by 3/4 angle bracket that is riveted to the rib and then is bolted to the spar. You can see them in the picture below (they are the anodized angle).

April 20th, 2008 Right Wing construction

2008-04-20T18:30:00.001-07:00

Spent several evenings straightening, sanding and fluting the ribs for the right wing. Sunday, the ribs were cleco clamped onto the spar web and the rear spar attached for initial fit.

Looking through one of the lightening holes from one end of the ribs.

April 16th, 2008 Right Wing cont...

2008-04-16T22:44:00.000-07:00

Started laying out the pieces for the rear spar for the right wing.

Rear spar attach brackets drilled and clecoed to rear spar. This assembly is bolted to the rear spar attach brackets on the fuselage and holds the wing at the correct angle of incidence.

Started work on wing ribs. Each rig is marked per the template sheet in the plans for where to flute it to make sure the flute points are between the wing skin holes.

April 14th, 2008 Right Wing work starts

2008-04-15T18:42:00.000-07:00

Disassembled wing jig and moved from storage to our new hanger at Goodyear. Reassembled and adjusted it to be level.

Fuselage cont...

2008-04-06T14:57:00.001-07:00

Saturday, RV4chick and I finished riveting the turtledeck on the RV4.

While we were at it, we riveted on the attach brackets for the passenger shoulder harnesses.

Sunday, I made some little attach tabs that go every 8 inches along the inside of the longeron. They will hold the static line in place as it goes from the rear fuselage to behind the instrument panel on the left side of the aircraft.

More fuselage work ...

2008-03-30T21:06:00.001-07:00

Final drilled the holes for roll bar. This is harder than it looks and takes a lot of prep work that isnt obvious from my reading of the plans. The bases of the roll bars are on a 4 degree angle. If the supports under the longeron weren't put in at the same 4 degree angle, the bottoms of the roll bar wont lay flat on the longeron.

Started riveting the turtledeck. The turtledeck is the top rear skin from the rear of the passenger seat to the tail of the aircraft. I was able to do the last third of the turtledeck by myself but will have to have rv4chick help me rivet the rest of it as one person will have to be inside the fuselage to buck the rivets while the other person is outside with the rivet gun.
RV4chick is quite petite and the fuselage is pretty narrow and confining. Wonder why then am I going to end up inside bucking the rivets?

Drilled and clecoed the piano hinge for the canopy to the right longeron. Its really important to keep the longeron straight from the passenger seat to where the hinge starts behind the instrument panel so the hinge won't be in a bind when the canopy opens and closes.

March 21st, 2008 fuseage accessories

2008-03-23T20:46:00.000-07:00

Fabricated the U channels or F404G parts that fill in the vertical part of the wing spar attach points for the fuselage.
The F-404G channels are installed with pop rivets as there is no way to get access to the inside to rivet them. I will leave them clecoed in place until after the aircraft wiring is installed. That way if I need to route some wiring through the F-404 bulkhead, it will be a lot easier to do.

March 20th, 2007 fuselage accessories...

2008-03-23T20:44:00.001-07:00

Fabricated the pushrods that go between the pilot stick, the copilot stick and the elevator bellcrank.

March 16th, 2007 Mounted 53KT instrument panel

2008-03-23T20:36:00.000-07:00

I temp mounted the instrument panel from N53KT in the new fuselage to see how it would fit. At this point, I am planning on selling most of the equipment in the panel and installing a Dynon FlightDek-D180 with the primary flight display and engine instruments combined into one box instead of installing the six pack panel back into the new RV.

March 15, 2008 Fuselage assessories continued....

2008-03-23T20:31:00.000-07:00

The new RV-4 elevator bellcranks from Vans are almost remade. Just have to assemble them.
This gives me an idea of what it must be like to build a newer model of RV that is prepunched and match drilled.

The completed bellcrank.

Jan 20th, 2007Move to new hanger

2008-03-23T20:24:00.000-07:00

After 4 years, we finally got to the top position on the hanger wait list at Goodyear airport (KGYR). It took 3 weekends of moving to get the stuff moved out to the hanger.
Moving the RV6a and RV4 fuselages to the hanger was the easy part. Since they were both on wheels or roller, we just rolled them onto the trailer, secured them and drove carefully to the new hanger and offloaded them. I mounted the set of main gear legs from N53KT to the new fuselage for the move. I have a new set of legs that is not drilled yet.

Dec 24th, 2007 Fuselage accessories

2007-12-24T21:16:00.000-07:00

I wanted a better way to attach the rudder cables as they exit the rear fuselage, so I build a little attach plate that lets me use a small adel clamp to hot the cable securely. The adel clamp can be reached when the horizontal stab fairing is removed.

The brackets that hold the elevator bellcranks are temporally clecoed into place.