Nose Gear Work
Today I worked on the nose gear a bit as well as continuing to rivet on the fuselage side skin. A recent Kitplanes article recommended using JB Weld with rivnuts, so I did exactly that for the towbar brackets that attach to the nose gear fork. In addition, I switched out the standard coated steel rivnuts for stainless, since the gear is likely to see a lot more moisture than other parts of the plane.
I mounted the wheel to the fork temporarily to check for fit. I had to sand down the 16 mm axle bolt a bit with a deburring wheel, it didn’t fit through the spacers provided, nor the bearing that goes through the wheel hub.
Next I mated the two halves of the wheel “spats” (fairings) and installed rivnuts, again using JB Weld to reinforce the rivnut install. I used stainless rivets here too rather than coated steel rivnuts.
I had some more rivets to install on the fuselage. I never installed rivets at the center-to-rear join, so I corrected that. I also completed riveting the reinforcement plates to the right side.
