We used Hysol epoxy (very similar to JBWeld) on the rivnuts installed in our Highlander project. They’ve held up really well over the years.
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Removable tail cap looks great! Nice work, very inspiring
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Hysol was used a lot at Sikorsky. It’s really good. Magnolia is made by the same company and is the adhesive of the Gods. I don’t know if mortals can buy it an at what price. Still, it only takes once for the rivnut to break free and then you are cooked!
Agreed. We have the luxury of getting to the backside of the panel being held by the Screw/Rivnut combo. On my old legacy Sonex I used nutplates on the tip fairings. I sandwiched a piece of aluminum between the skin and rib and riveted it on. And then added the nutplates to the protruding piece of aluminum and the fairings butted upto the existing tail skin. Just another way of doing it, I guess.
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Hello — I have been thinking of doing this as well. Did you drill for the nut plates and then dimple and use flush rivets to hold them on the forward rib?
Hi Steven, first let me say this is my first attempt but I think it turned out pretty well. There might be better ways to do it or other parts that might work better.
I did not dimple, I did a counter sink and then used flush rivets. The sheet metal is not too thick but I was able to counter sink the hole well enough to get a flush rivet to set.
On the forward part of the tip I used the mini floating nut plates. They were a bit over 1/2" long. Anything longer would not have worked on the forward part of the rib that is flutted. The flutting made setting the nut plates difficult. In that forward part of the tip I had to turn the nut plate diagonally to get the opening to be flush with the hole. In a couple spots setting the flush rivets in the flutted area was not pretty, but I think they are well secured. Again, the floating aspect of the nut plate is important to the screw/bolt going in. But the nut plates set easily on the flat part of the rib.
On the aft portion of the tip, I used the slip on screw plates. They worked fine but they will require care when removing and reattaching the tip.
I used #8 screws and bolts. I think #6 would work just as well. I did have to enlarge all holes including the fiberglass for the #8 screws and bolts. Good luck.
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Thx. I did something similar with sold nut plates on a RV7. The difference is that the fiber glass tips on the RV fit inside the skin and do not involve a rib. I put the nut plates in the fiber glass with a countersink for the flush rivets. Then then the screws just went through skin to the nut plates on the fiber glass. I like how yours looks. Will look at options.