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Wing access plate thickness ??

William Slaughter

Well Known Member
Just finished riveting on the W-705 lower outboard wing skin this weekend, and went out this evening to finish up with the access plate. When I dug out the W-822-pp access plate blanks, I noticed that they seemed thicker than the finished access plates (this is a QB) that came on the W-804 lower inboard skin. :confused: Got out the dial calipers, and sure enough, I've got .032 access panel blanks to put on the .025 outboard skin, and .025 access plates on the .032 inboard skins.:eek: What's up with that? Are their supposed to be two different thicknesses? Seems like I would want to have the access plate thickness match the skin thickness where it's installed, and certainly not a thick plate on the thin skin?
 
Seems odd to me as well that they'd have the same part # and be different thicknesses. I just checked my W-822PP and all 6 are .032 from a slowbuild kit.

--Ken
 
Talked to Bruce at Van's about this yesterday, and after some intial discussion, and verifying that there is only one part number for the access plates and that it calls for 0.032 material, he checked with engineering to see if there was a structural issue here. Engineering said that they would "feel better about it" if all of the access panels were 0.032. At that point I allowed that I would probably feel better with all 0.032 pieces as well.:rolleyes: Four new pieces are on the way at no charge. I don't know if this was just an old manufacturing mistake or a bit of improvisation by our pals in the Phillipines, but other quickbuilders might want to check and see what they received.
 
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