----[Please read http://ercoupers.com/disclaimer.htm before following any advice in this forum.]---- Joe
What is the grade of stainless used and what thickness? If I get all the material here without having to pay freight and taxes it will make things easier for me. The task itself does not daunt me but you description has been a great help. At 12:00 AM 01-05-02, Joe wrote: David; It really was an easy task. get one of those self activating center punches and get all the rivets dimpled. drill only through the head then use a drift of the same size as the drill and snap off the rivet heads. they pop off real easy. part of the rivets will fall right thru to the floorboard, part will need to be puched through with a small punch. . based on the width of the stainless piece, measure how far toward the windshield you need to make the cut mark, (just in front of that bulkhead in front of the windshield,) the two lower rows of rivets toward the rear will need to have two or three additional rivets drilled out so you can open that panel enough to get the tin snips in. I used the one with the flat bottom, red handle I think. anyway once you slip that lower flat jaw of the snips in, it's easy to make that one cut across the top just behind the gas filler. carfully slide that panel out from under the firewall flange and now you have the pattern to make the necessary holes in the stainless piece. I used one of those hand metal punches that comes with 6 diffenent punch. Now take the piece you just cut out and lay it over the stainless piece, keeping all the edges alligned clamp the two pieces together. using the old holes as a guide. match the size and puch out 2 holes on each of the 4 sides. I then borrowed 8 clecos put them in removing the clamps. all is now held on place so you can punch out the rest of the holes. I think it was about 120 or so total. . before you put the stainless in place make sure all the rivet bottoms have been punch out. put the stainless in place holding it in with clecos. I then used cherry max rivets (aircraft grade pop rivets) Got all I needed through ebay at a real good price. they seem to always be a couple of people who have them. I did have a lot of trouble trying to drill out the gas filler hole with a circle cutter. couldn't do it so I drilled s starter hole and used the tin snips to cut it out. it was a lot easier and that big rubber gasket covers it anyway. all in all it was a pretty easy conversion. one more thing, while the top panel is still off and you have good access, now is the time to drill the new holes in the control yoke shaft to reposition the stop collar to get that 9 deg of up travel. Also if you need to do anything with the instruments, do it now while they are all in view and easy to get at. when I was putting in the cherry max rivets, even though I held every thing in place with the clecos, there were still a couple of holes I had to run the drill through to clean up the hole. I think I did the hole thing over a weekend, couple hours a day. sorry to ramble on but I tried to give you the steps I took to do the conversion. By the way I got the conversion kit over the internet for $50, got all the rivets I needed for less then $15 SOOOOOoooo don't be chicken, have at it, you'll get it done in no time at all. Oh, almost forgot, you'll have to get ar make a hole locator for the back row of holes since the stainless will cover the holes you'll be riveting onto. JoeC 99621 ----- Original Message ----- From: David Abrams <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: 4/29/02 5:31:14 PM Subject: RE: [COUPERS-TECH] Gross weight So Joe, how hard was the replacing the cowl section with the stainless steel? I have the kit from skyport but driling out all those rivets has me chicken. David Brian Garrett Viewbank Australia Sonerai II VH-JGB Ercoupe 415C ==^================================================================ This email was sent to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?aVxiLm.aVzvvT Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^================================================================
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