Hey Steve: If the place you are taking the sheet metal course does not have a bead roller, you can buy one from Harbor Freight for about $120. However, ERCO, Forney and Alon used two, three and zero beaded skins on the bottom of the center section. I believe they all used the same thickness skin, so I think it would depend on how close you wanted to make it look original. You will find that the belly skin is a little over 4 ft wide, so you will need a piece longer than 4 feet to start with. Dave's sight gave good advise on changing the skins. Yes, the bottom stub wing skins are structural, but since from zero to three beads were used at different times, I suspect you could replace them with whichever you wanted. Lynn Nelsen In a message dated 5/3/2010 9:57:12 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time, [email protected] writes:
Hi list members, I am starting work on pulling my belly skins to repair some damage and to do a full inspection of those hidden areas behind the rear spar wing walk box. And I have some questions that those of you who have done similar work might be able to answer. I am looking at removing the main large belly skin which runs from the front spar rearward. Most of it I have already derivetted. I plan to fabricate a new skin since Univair wants 250 dollars for a new one and it seems fairly straightforward. I also plan to remove the two triangular sections which run back to the main fuselage. They are in good shape so its just a matter of pulling them to get access to the rear spar area. However, I am at a bit of a loss what to do about the two wing box bottom skins. They also could use replacement, but I am not sure how to make the beads. I should say that I am nearing the end of a one year course in aircraft sheet metal and structure, and can ask the same question of my instructors, but the three beads on each skin do not look like anything I have yet seen. Univair wants some ungodly price for them....about 400 bucks each which seems like a fortune for such a small amount of sheet metal. So I would love to hear any advice or personal experience from the list. I am also wondering if the wing walk box skins are structural or simply aerodynamics. They seem structural unlike the belly skin. Any other hints or advice would be much appreciated. The bird is a 1960 Forney F1, and has three beads on each skin. Yes I know about the AD and was planning to install the inspection panels at the same time. But I wanted to get in to the area and clean and repair anything the last 50 years have wrought on the plane. As always, anything comments, advice or warnings would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance, Steve Finkelman Edmonton Alberta Canada p.s. I should point out that I am flying in the owner maintenance category which allows me to sign off my own work, although I always get someone else to inspect just to play it safe. ------------------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Links
