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320/360 Gear doors
I used the Lancair recommended "pop rivet" method to attach the gear door hinge half to the fuselage (thru the imbedded aluminum). The forward few rivets of the main gear doors started to get loose at about 300 hours and all those rivets were easily replaced with AN3 bolts thru the cockpit closeout rib.
However, at this annual condition inspection, I noticed that the forward 4 or 5 nose gear door hinge/fuselage rivets were also working loose. Bolts are not applicable here because the cockpit side of the nose gear tunnel at the hinge line is under the floor and is further hidden by the tubes for brake and electrical lines.
Today, I drilled out all of the original rivets. I also had to drill thru the harder pop rivet setting shaft. In doing so, the drill vibrated and enlarged the hole. I should have then cleaned up the holes and obtained oversize rivets for a proper fit and thats what you should do if you have this problem.
But no, I have 1/8 inch stainless steel pop rivets (much hardier than aluminum) from another airplane project and so I installed those. I will report back at a future date on whether these harder rivets make up for the loose holes they were installed into. Lord knows how difficult those will be to drill out!
Scott Krueger
N92EX
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