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Here are a few of the other Body Modifications we tackled along the way.
The large Black Ventilation Hole in the lower rear panel didn’t seem too appealing so we surfed around for alternative ideas. The angled slots Matthew is dressing above are of equal surface area to the standard Black Hole but, we reckon, far more attractive. We covered the whole panel in masking tape and drew the shapes until we were happy with the positioning and the angle of the slots.
We first drilled a 1 1/2 inch hole at the end of each drawn slot with a hole saw, then cut the sides with our air panel saw. A flap wheel in a drill was used to tidy the end radii and a sharp file and 120 grit abrasive for the sides.
I changed all the supplied body screws (top picture) for Stainless Steel Countersunk screws set in stainless Screw Cups. My reasons were several. The standard issued screws are plated steel and are not very tough. As many other builders have found, many of the nut plates are so tight that the first few threads of each screw are damaged on insertion. Also, our new screws are much lower profile - helpful around the door sealing area. Finally, in my opinion, they look an awful lot nicer and they’ll never rust.
We’re planning a similar fixing solution on the main screen using larger diameter ‘Tinnerman’ washers. An unquantifiable benefit could well be better aerodynamics. The lower profile screws will certainly reduce turbulence but we’ll probably never know by how much.
In UK mods like these require permission and acceptance from Rotorway. Both the body screw and the proposed new screen screw have been OK’d by Tom Smith of Rotorway.
You must know your Rotorway to recognise this area. The camera is positioned in the middle of the seat back looking left at the side panel joint. This is a very weak area. Some UK owners have reinforced this join with aluminium angle on the outside. I thought I would try and reinforce and extend the joint overlap on the inside with additional GRP.
Here’s the finished joint with two nut plates instead of one. I used a method previously described. Apply packing tape to the lower panel as a mould release and lay up new GRP to cover the joint area. Trim it all back to size when it’s cured.
I reinforced the top screen support pillar joints using a similar method. Here’s a Pilot’s eye view, looking left whilst sitting in the Pilots seat, just six inches away from your head. We now have three fixing screws on this joint instead of the usual one.
I had seen a few solutions for the fixing of the four-panel joint on each side of the ship and I couldn’t rest easy with any of them. There are two problems to overcome with this joint. 1 to make a neat joint of four thicknesses of GRP material and 2 To provide a strong and secure attachment for the Dzus fastener. Here’s a picture of the pilots side joint. I cut away squares from the corners of the upper right and lower left panels.
This shot is the inside view of the same joint. I built up and extended the corner of the upper forward panel to form a more substantial mounting for the Dzus spring. You can just see the seat back in the top right of the picture
I knew about the minimal hand clearance between the collective and the floorpan moulding before the kit arrived. Suggestions for improvement ranged from pushing the seat back fully to the pilots side to heating the collective tube and bending it slightly!!! To my mind de-centralising the seat back would cause more problems than it would cure and bending the collective lever would play havoc with the throttle rod alignment.
My solution was to follow the lead of a few other builders and modify the adjacent panel area for more hand clearance. I cut and removed an ‘S’ shaped section from the moulding with my trusty Panel Saw, sliced a 3/8 inch wide strip from the top of the ‘S’ and grafted it onto the bottom. I re-glassed the modified ‘S’ panel back into the cut-out then blended and radiused all the edges. Result, 3/8 inch more collective clearance, a centralised seat moulding and a safe throttle mechanism.
Here’s the finished job with a light coat of paint.
Here’s the two body liners Clekoed in position on the (now one-piece) roof and upper sides panel. These liners are designed to be sandwiched between the seatback and the body panels. I decided to trim them to just butt against the seat back. At the moment they fit quite snugly but I’ll add some heavy duty self adhesive Velcro fixing if needs be.
UPDATE: I’ve decided to dump the roof liners and bond the eyebrow windows in position. See ‘Screen’ section
This means that the door pillar liners would have an open end where they would have met the roof liners. I sliced and reshaped the liner to bevel off at the end. The cut outs are for clearance around nut plates on the door pillars.
DOOR PILLAR LINERS
I’ve been mulling over what to do about map and document stowage. I’ve seen a few examples ranging from fabricated aluminium to elasticated netting. I eventually came up with the idea of making Map Pockets in the GRP door pillar liners themselves. After a mock up or two in cardboard I cut a ‘H’ pattern in the liners with my panel saw.
My idea was to spring the lower section outwards and the upper section inwards then glass-in the sides.
I taped the liners into position and used rubber wedges to lift and depress the cut flaps. I then put on some blobs of filler (Bondo) to make temporary pillars to hold it all in position
I used my trusty Powerfile to grind away what was left of the radiused corner of the liner between the filler pillars.
And keyed the surface with my Powerfile
This is 1 inch wide woven glass fibre tape. I cut it into 2 and 3 inch pieces.
And bonded them across the gap one at a time, gradually building up three or four layers and forming a new corner radius. I also reinforced the cut edges across the ‘H’. You can see here that I’ve made a second, smaller pocket higher up the liner and I’ve begun filling and tidying the back.
Here I’ve started filling and dressing the outside.
Here’s the pilots side installed - primed and ready for flocking. I’ll cut some simple one-piece leather backing pockets and bond them on the inside
SCREWCUPS MODIFICATION
A little earlier in this section is a picture of the countersunk screwcups I have chosen to use on the body panels. They’re fine but they have a rolled edge that holds them off the surface slightly and could cut into the paintwork a little. I discovered that I could flatten the rolled edge using the DZUS tool and a hammer.
This turns them into mini Tinnerman washers. Even better!!
REAR LOWER PANELS
I trimmed and squared-off the opening around the Heat Shield. It turned out surprisingly central to the ship. I used a 2 inch Flap Wheel to radius the corners.
The Pilots side rear lower body panel has a moulded - in joggle where the passengers side panel will be secured. Mine was way off centre and skewed around a few degrees - and I can’t believe that any others end up straight and centrally in-line with the middle of the ship. I’ve highlighted the joggle with a pencil (lower line) and marked the overlapped edge of the other panel alongside it (upper line). Luckily, the edge of the passengers panel was pretty close to straight and central
I cut off the old joggle up to my new pencil line and made a 2 inch wide aluminium joining plate that was slightly shorter than the length of the joint.
I drilled and secured the plate with 9 staggered countersunk rivets and I’ll DZUS the joint as normal. Straight down the middle. I’ll have to cut away some material for clearance around the silencer hanging straps but it won’t be much.
ALUMINIUM BELLY PAN
I’ve been looking forward to this stage ‘cos I get to bash some metal around a little.
The Belly Pan as supplied with the kit is simply a rectangular piece of aluminium cut to something like 2 ft 6 ins x 10 ins with a 30 degree folded edge around 3 inches wide. It fits under the front end of the Heatshield as an extension to the rear of the GRP tub. Well, a flat piece of Ali with a fold in it ain’t gonna bend very easily to match the curvature of the tub and the rear lower panels. Hence some panel bashing.
The tools - my old surface plate and a slightly domed panel beaters hammer. The plan - to ‘stretch’ the folded face which will then impart a curve on the larger face. This is not a job for the impatient. It took me a couple of hours, beating heavily at the edge and gradually lightening the hammer blows progressively towards the fold. After ten or fifteen minutes bashing, the un-bashed face will begin to curl as the beaten face is stretched by the hammer blows. You’ll soon start to see where you need to bash more and harder to even up the shape.
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If it’s difficult to picture what’s happening here, imagine beating a flat strip two inches wide by two feet long. By beating one long edge more than the other, the strip would begin to form a curve. Taking that process to the ultimate end, the two ends would eventually meet and we would form a two dimensional flat circle. Now, because we have a fold and another flat piece of material effectively resisting the curving tendency of our strip, it cannot form a circle so both parts do the only thing they can - form a curve in the other plane
I thought it would look much neater if I mounted the sides of the plate on the inside of the rear panels and the long edge on the joggle at the rear of the tub moulding. I trimmed out the corners and joggled the sides of the ali panel so that it would sit flush all round.
It’ll eventually have the standard four DZUS fasteners fixing it.
DZUS FASTENERS
I know I’m not alone in having some problems setting the DZUS grommets squarely with a hammer and the tool provided. Buried in my junk shed I found a rusty old eyelet press.
I cleaned it up and made a couple of new setting tools
... and it works brilliantly - perfectly pressed eyelets every time.
Not everyone is gonna have a rusty eyelet press laying around but I reckon that a regular pillar drill could be used in exactly the same way. You may have to make a couple of new setting tools to fit in the chuck though.
DZUS fasteners are wonderful things but they rely on perfect alignment of all the holes and all three components - Button, Grommet and Spring. An accurate drilling jig for the spring mounting holes is important but you’ll find that the springs are sometimes inconsistent in their shape.
I try a fastener on each spring before fitting the grommets. If it appears straight and in-line, fine. If it sits at an angle like this one it usually means that the spring doesn’t cross the centre of the hole.
This can be corrected by squeezing the spring slightly with a pair of grips or pliers on one end or the other depending on which way the spring needs to move.
It is also possible to squeeze the spring slightly closer to the panel using a pair of grips and a suitable backing piece - here a steel lathe tool.
To remove a fastener I use a pair of pincers ground to a really sharp cutting edge to get under the pressed lip of the grommet and nibble it away. Not too scientific but it works.
I didn’t want to paint the DZUS buttons so I made a cutting tool from a piece of 15 mm stainless plumbing pipe to cut masking tape plugs on a piece of rubber.
DOG HOUSE FINAL MOD
Just a little one here. This is the inside of the rear lower corner of the front Dog House Moulding. I wondered why this DZUS button wouldn’t reach the spring. It’s because the panel has a moulded joggle to accept the overlap of the rear Dog House Moulding. I cut off the bottom 1 1/2 inches of the joggle on each side and sanded the back of the panel flat. Problem solved.
REPAIRING CUT PANELS
I have been asked how to graft wrongly cut GRP panels back together. There are probably other ways to do this but here’s my method:
The RW panels are relatively thin so butt joints require some accurate preparation and alignment - especially if the original thickness is to be maintained over the joint. If, for instance, you have to graft back on a strip. Cut a 2 inch strip of thin soft aluminium or plastic as a backing strip and drill and cleko on the glecoat side, along the join to keep both pieces flat and in line. You can easily fill the drilled holes later. Then feather away a shallow 'V' an inch wide on the other side right through to the backing strip. Lay up new GRP - I like to use whatever the parent material is - in most cases woven cloth (but any glass should be OK), in layers along the feathered channel. Starting with a half inch wide strip, then rotating the weave 45 degrees and laying up a 3/4 wide strip etc. until the channel is filled slightly over flush. This would probably take five or six layers of cloth. Be careful not to overdo the resin - you need just enough to wet the mat. If you can stretch to a steel lay-up roller that's great but I just use my fingers on small parts to press out excess resin and mop it off the surface with a tissue. Leave it to cure overnight (or longer in winter) then remove the backing and feather the front but this time only half way through. Lay up in strips again. When it's fully cured you should be able to block down and paint both sides to an invisible repair.
If the wrongly cut-off piece is too small, or you just need to extend the original edge a little, you can use basically the same method but just cleko you backing strip to overlap the edge sufficiently. Then lay up new GRP and trim back as necessary.
Also, if it’s not necessary to maintain the original panel thickness there’s no reason why you cannot lay up a few more layers on the back.
I cut an inch too much from the lower rear body panels. Here it is restored to the correct length and ready for paint. |
