New RV-4 builder

Hello everybody!

Just wanted to say hi as I am just about to start the adventure of my life, building my own airplane, and when building a RV-4 this seems like the best place to meet people who is doing or has already done the same thing.

That it became a RV-4 has more to do with luck than anything else. I had the fortune to find a kit that has been around for a while, the empennage is built but that is about it. I never thought that I would be able to build an airplane like this but with the price of this kit it suddenly became reality.

At the moment I am inventorying the kit and cleaning the parts. Most of the stuff looks to be ok, some are missing and others are a little dented but no major problems so far, except for maybe a dent in one of the spars at the tip, should not be too hard to fix.

Here where I live (Sweden) one needs a ?Permission to build? before one can start, so I am working on that part at the moment. The great thing with homebuilding in Sweden is that all the inspections, paperwork and so on are handled by EAA, so one does not have to deal at all with ?Transportstyrelsen?, our FAA.

I guess that the actual building will not start until the spring, need to get the shop in order, buy the tools and get the paperwork in order first. Then it is building time.

One strange thing is that the original owner, who sadly is not around anymore, has primed the ribs that go inside the tank, so I guess I will be ordering new tank ribs. I don?t know if priming the parts inside the tanks are a bad id?e but I have not heard anyone else that has done that. Anyone that has anything to say about that?

/Fredrik

Welcome to the site!

Hello Fredrik;

Welcome to the site! I'm finishing up a -4 after building a -3. If you have any questions please feel free to write [email protected] I would use a good paint remover and a scotch brite to take off the primer with. Just make sure that you get it all. I made thet same mistake when building the -3, that was over 20 years ago and there have been no problems with cleaning them off. Building will be an adventure!! but you have a whole new faimily on this site that will be glad to help!

I think that the ribs have been primed with some kind of epoxy primer, so I guess it will be hard work to clean them of that, and the ribs are not overly expensive to by new from Vans so I guess I go that route.

Fredrik, greetings from the UK!

I question if you need to remove it? I would be tempted to leave one in a bath of petrol for a week and see if there is any change. If its a good quality epoxy I doubt there will be. Also, you could ask VANS, but as you say, in the scheme of things ribs are cheap.

One bit of advice. The cost of shipments from the USA is going to frustrate you. I really would try to keep a list of bits you need so you can make fewer larger orders, and work on something else whenever you are held up.

Good luck with the project! Steve.

PS where are you? I used to spend a lot of time in Stockholm and Gothenburg.

You might try a bit of MEK (Methyl Ethyl Ketone) on that primer. It's the most potent cleaner and stripper I know of. If it works, putting the ribs in a bath of MEK should clean them up in no time.

Steve: I live about 100km west of Stockholm, one hours drive. Where do you live? I have not been around much in England but I have been to Duxford (Flying Legends) a couple of times. Next time will be when the RV-4 is finished (I hope).

I need to order some other parts so I thought that I might well order these as well, to keep the cost of shipping down. 10 ribs is about 150$ so it is no large sum, and it will give me piece of mind. Especially as I don?t really have an idea what this old primer really is.

The strange thing is that I actually have a extra set of nose ribs, but no extra tank ribs. I guess that I could alter these to tankribs (they don?t have any holes cut in them). But then it is the heat treatment, they are supposed to be bent first, and then heat treated. These are already bent.

I thought about MEK, but that really is nasty stuff. Maybe it is worth it, maybe not.

Maybe one more

Hi Pettersson,

I am about 7 Swedish miles south of Stockholm and may be building an RV4 too. I have the plan pack, but have not yet ordered the kit. Perhaps we'll meet up sometime.

Cheers,

Justin

Pettersson said:

Steve: I live about 100km west of Stockholm, one hours drive. Where do you live? I have not been around much in England but I have been to Duxford (Flying Legends) a couple of times. Next time will be when the RV-4 is finished (I hope).

I need to order some other parts so I thought that I might well order these as well, to keep the cost of shipping down. 10 ribs is about 150$ so it is no large sum, and it will give me piece of mind. Especially as I don?t really have an idea what this old primer really is.

The strange thing is that I actually have a extra set of nose ribs, but no extra tank ribs. I guess that I could alter these to tankribs (they don?t have any holes cut in them). But then it is the heat treatment, they are supposed to be bent first, and then heat treated. These are already bent.

I thought about MEK, but that really is nasty stuff. Maybe it is worth it, maybe not.

Click to expand...

I am from the SW of the UK, but now I live in the N. Not so far from Richmond. Where you are is very beautiful. I flew a couple of times from Drottningholm out to the West. Good luck with the -4. Let me know if I can help.

Steve:
Your blog has been a great help already, and I have not even started building.

The only problem with it is that it becomes quite obvious how much work there really is involved in building a RV-4. Sometimes I feel it would be better to not to know.

Speedy-5: Nice to hear from you. When I have gotten my project going you are welcome to come by to have a look, of course. Now most of the stuff are packed away so there is not much to see at the moment.