After removing the bad portion of the bottom stringer, a new piece of 1/2" aluminum tubing was cut to the same length. A pipe bender was used to (intentionally) bend up one end where it enters the back of the fuselage to match the original profile. New 5/16" holes were drilled in the stringer for the supports tubes. Three new stringer support tubes were also made as three of the originals were also damaged (bent) in the incident.
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| New section of stringer, 3 new support tubes, and inner sleeve |
To splice the new stringer to the old one, we used a small 4" section of 7/16" tubing as an inner sleeve (The piece on the left in the image above). The 7/16" tubing actually had slightly too large of diameter to fit inside, but it also had a fairly thick wall so it was filed and sanded down until it fit nicely inside of the 1/2 inch tubing. The two sections of stringer were connected together with the sleeve and Hysol epoxy.
The three new support tubes were drilled, deburred, and riveted to the fuselage, and the new stringer was then epoxied to the support tubes with Hysol epoxy. Looks good as new! Hours: 5.0
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| Bottom stringer repair completed |
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