Final door fitting

I went to do the final fitting of the doors during assembly of the plane and after the windshield was in. The left door fit just like it did when it was removed after I made it. The right however is a different story. It seems to have flattened out a little in the curve which means when closing there is a 3/4" gap a the door pins between the door outer skin and the fuse. The doors were stored in the same place, for the same amount of time, and in the same position. Anyone seen this before or have a suggestion on how to fix it? Heat gun and tie-down straps haven't worked. It is so bad that even when using the third latch from Sean at Planearound, the door simply twists and the aft pin won't engage the pin guides. I REALLY do not feel like remaking a door because it bowed! Anyone have some experience they can share? Thanks.

Eric Kallio
Trying to get it together so I can go to the hanger.

Eric,

Mine changed fit everytime I took them off and put them back on but not to that extent. Any chance you may have put the front hinge on the back or put the hinges back in the wrong space? If the door bowed you may try a heat gun to reshape it to it's original position, they seem pretty temp stable so I seems unlikely that heat in the shop would have that great of an effect.

Eric,
Very strange! Just make sure it is not touching near the top as a small interference at the top it will make a huge difference at the bottom. I have seen this with the rubbers. You can try and fit a shim between the hinge and the door that will lift it slightly. It might just surprise you. Good luck.

Eric,

This may seem obvious but this was a mistake I made. I put in a lot of hours getting the doors to fit well. A couple of months later I installed the seals and started all over again. So just in case you have not yet installed the seals then it does not matter because you will be fitting them again anyway.

Another problem may be as someone suggested that you put the hinges on backwards, it's an easy mistake to make.

If the hinges are correct and you had fitted with the seals installed and still have the problem I would consider rolling it out in the sun and getting some heat in the top and doors and see if you can get them to fit.

Pat

Door fit

The hinges are correct. Having made the mistake earlier in the build they are CLEARLY labeled. Only make that mistake once. The seals were also on the last time they were installed, and the canopy was secured. The issue is no the upper portion of the door is contacting the canopy frame and not allowing the lower edge to close. I have applied heat with a heat gun in the bend twice and used tie-down straps around the fuse to hold it in shape. The picture below shows my issue with the door resting in the down position.



Eric

Mislabeled ?

Eric,
Your door closing looks so out of whack it has to be the hinges.
Is it possible that you mislabeled them?
I mislabeled mine and I thought I was meticulous about those things.
Compare them to the plans and double check the slanted orientation.
I am almost certain this is your problem.

Door fit

Is that picture with you pushing in on the handle or just resting in the down position?

My pilot side door had a hard time engaging the rear pin all the way and two things helped, one was the plane around.com latch and the other was the 45 degree pins. They do give a little more room to engage into the pin block.

Did you have the lift strut in place before??

Is it in place now??

I find the lift strut will tweak the door about a half inch on my plane.

I am pretty sure most 10s will exhibit this tendenacy to some degree, but yours does seem to be a bit extreem.

How is the fit of the other door??

If you are uncomfortable.....

with all the questions, I was always taught to ask a question back!

HAHAHAHAHA. I had to laugh tonight at the inquisition we are putting you through.

Are you sure the curve flattened out? the picture shows the door fit but if you put the left and right doors next to each other is the right one more flat compared to the left as you initially stated? otherwise..
Mike is right about the strut, the doors are flimsy so the strut would do this, also this looks like the issue I had with the seals, could be the seals expanded if it fit before.
Did you paint or primer the doors..
Lastly, you mention that you labeled the hinge.. did you do it for "left front" and "right front" or just "front" and "back"? sides makes a difference.
I took my doors off and left the hinges on the doors so when I go to put them back they will go back in the right location.

Pascal
RV-10
finishing what I thought I finished last time

My responses

I have been out of town this week and just got back to the plane to answer your questions. The hinges are in their correct locations, the struts are not interfering (same issue with or without the strut), the seals aren't the issue I can slip a piece of 0.032 scrap along the entire edge when I force the door closed. When I got back to work on it this morning I removed the door pins and finished the install of the latch from Sean to pull the center of the door closed. With the latch fully installed I was able to set it so that it pulled the door in far enough to get the forward pin to engage the guides. Not so much so with the aft pin. I marked where the aft pin is now contacting the door frame and filled the old holes with flox. Tomorrow I will redrill and install the aft guide in a manner to pull the door better into position. My concern is it may put so much tension on the door that someone won't be able to open the door with the external handles. Any better ideas or comments from the masses?

Eric Kallio