I flipped the fuse over to have access to the bottom side of the nose. I trimmed up the doors that I had layed up and trial fit them in place. I used 5 layers of 7781 cloth to make the doors. I always have a plethora of 7781 off cuts so I decided to use some of it up.

Next I cut some hinge to length and layed out some holes. I’ve had this pitch gauge for 17 years and I think this might be the first time I ever used it. It works well.

After I had one row of holes drilled I used that hinge to back drill the holes onto the other one.

Here are the hinges with the #40 pilot holes drilled.

I routed a small setback so the hinge would have clearance.

Once the hinge was located I back drilled the holes into the gear well.

I trial fit the doors to make sure everything was going to work. I was trying to get a close fit so I had as little of the hinge visible as possible. So far so good.

I opened up the pilot holes to be able to install some potted inserts. I will talk more about them when they are installed.

I was doing a clean up on the mezzanine so this is what became of my plane for a few days.

Eventually I got to this. Now I have a little more room to move around. I will also have room to build my wings up here rather than being in the way on the shop floor.

While my plane was buried in crap I decided to machine my NG 5. It was made from 0.250 plate. This is a pic of the first cuts.

This pic has quite a bit of glare but this is what it looked like after the outside was milled. It was flipped an the back side was machined but I managed not to get a pic of that.

I freed the part on the band saw and then deburred it.

The bottom of my fuse has a decent amount of curve so part of the challenge was figuring out how to use straight hinge. The hinge was installed flush on the outer edges but the center is 0.160 low in the middle. I would need to make a profiled shim for between the gear door and the hinge. I decided to use phenolic for that job.

I had only bought a square foot of phenolic and it wasn’t long enough so I had to make the shim in two pieces. Once I had the shape milled I cut the widths on the band saw.

I used some CA to glue the shims together until it was permanently attached to the hinge.

After fighting to line up the nose gear strut to its mounting hole a few times I bevelled a bolt to make it easier. Turned out to be a huge success and stopped the cursing 🙂

I covered the strut with some vinyl tape and gave it a coat of wax. I then layed up 3 layers of cloth to form the c channel.

I was sure that I would  have to put some core on these doors but I purposely didn’t put it in in the first layup.  I wanted to find out what clearance I would need. I will re use the molds to hold its shape when I perform that task. So I marked out where the the foot will mount. I will also be milling a new piece for this.

I marked out the minimum clearance for the tire. I will have to make sure my core does not impede on this parameter.

I prepped the strut for bonding of the NG 5. I also used some vinyl tape to create a dam for when I filled the excess door recess in the nose. I used ear plugs to protect the holes from excess adhesive. Yes, they were unused 🙂

I scuffed the back side of the NG 5 and applied some adhesive.

 I used some CA to temporarily bond the NG 5 into place. I then did a check to make sure I had it set into the correct position.

I used strips of glass to fill the gear recess. The dams worked well to create a tight line along the NG 5.

After the glass had cured I sanded the area to match the contour of the nose. After sanding I removed the gear strut assembly. It popped out easier than I thought it would.

There was more squeeze out than I had hoped for so I will have to clean this up and put fillet all the way around the strut.

The holes were back drilled through the NG 5 and screws installed. I didn’t have the correct length of screws so I will have to add that to my next ACS order. I also need to countersink the NG 5 a little bit more but I wanted to continue with the doors so it will have to do for now.

Here is a pic of the strut door in place.

And here it is open. I had to relieve a small pocket in the bulkhead for clearance. I had actually thought I went overboard with the clearance I had left but turned out not to be so.

I released the c channel off of the strut and removed the tape. I gave the c channel a quick clean up but since I will be glassing onto it I did get carried away. The rest of the strut was cleaned and prepped for bonding on the door.

Adhesive was applied to the mating surfaces. I used a flox micro combo on the strut and structural adhesive where the door will bond to the metal.

I used CA to glue some popsicle sticks to the door so I could control the height and clecos to apply pressure on the metal to glass bond. I plan on putting some chicken rivets in the drilled holes.