Riveting the FF-1206B hinge onto the FF-1205 cooler box door using MS20427F3-3.5
stainless rivets.
After the cooler box door riveting was completed, work began on the installing the other half of the cooler box door hinge on the FF-1204A cooler box face. The FF-1206A stainless hinge needs to be match drilled to the rivet holes in the FF-1204A cooler box face after being clamped 3 3/4" up from the bottom of the cooler box face. Once again, the drill press was used to drill #30 holes in the stainless hinge material.
After the match drilling was completed, the parts were deburred and secured onto the F-1201C lower firewall with Clecos for riveting. The rivets used for the hinge area are MSP-42 and the rest of the rivets are LP4-3. Next the FF-1204B&C upper and lower cooler box ribs were riveted in place.
Riveting the F-1204A cooler box face and the associated FF-1206A hinge
onto the F-1201C lower firewall using MSP-42 rivets.
Riveting the FF-1204B upper cooler box rib onto the F-1201C lower
firewall with LP4-3 pop rivets.
Completed cooler box frame riveted onto the F-1201C lower firewall.
At this time, the previously completed cooler box door assembly is now installed by way of inserting the FF-1206C hinge pin down through a hole in the FF-1204B upper rib. The upper rib also has two additional holes which are to be used to safety wire the FF-1206C hinge in place.
The cooler door assembly now set in place with the FF-1206C hinge pin
safety wired to the upper rib. The door swings very freely.
The last step is to make a silicone gasket for the cooler door from high temperature silicone. The plans instruct the builder to place wax on the firewall, roughen up the outer edges of the cooler box door with a Scotch-Brite pad and place a coating of silicone around the perimeter of the cooler door and tape the door closed to let the silicone cure to form a gasket. It would have been much easier to scuff up the outer edges of the door prior to installing it … so I would suggest fellow builders do that step first prior to assembly. Although Van’s plans call for coating the firewall with wax to act as a mold release so the silicone won’t stick to the firewall after the gasket is formed …. my plan was to use the Vaseline left over from the canopy lay-up. Unfortunately, I couldn’t locate it quickly, so opted to rub some liquid Boelube onto the firewall and hope for the best. It should work well enough to prevent the silicone from sticking onto the firewall.
Return from the future: Using the liquid Boelube as a release agent was a dismal failure! The details of this failure are covered in the next newest post.
After the door gasket surfaces were roughed up, Acetone was used to clean off the surface prior to applying the silicone. A wooden epoxy stir stick was cut flat and used to work a thin layer of high temperature silicone onto the edges of the cooler box door … this was followed by placing a thin bead of silicone around the perimeter of the box door. The door was closed and gently pressed down a little to flatten out the bead of silicone then taped shut to let the silicone cure to form into a gasket.
Silicone placed on the perimeter of the cooler box door prior to closing
the door to form a gasket seal.
Cooler box door taped shut to let the high temperature silicone cure to
form a gasket.
Sure hope the Boelube works well as a release agent … time will tell. It didn't.
