Left Door Hinge on Sundowner

M

msamac

Level Cruise
I thought I'd see what you guys thing about this.

The left door hinge on my airplane had some broken parts at the top and bottom. I called beech, and I guess there are two sides. The fuselage side was over $2000.00, and the door side was $400.00+. That is insane. My IA is telling me we can figure something else out.

He may be moving back east, so I'm trying to get all the major repairs done while I still have him. That is one last thing I need an IA for really bad. Do you guys have any suggestions or recommendation for this project. For example, what is the original material (we were guessing pure gold based on the price and how easy they break).

BTW - going back to our "what our BAC membership costs", or something like that... I rest my case!

Conway
 
Mike, which type hinge do you need? Flush piano style hinge, or the surface-mount hinge (upper and lower)? Can you send me a photo of the problem area of the hinge?
 
Mike,

My hinge is not surface mount. I will send you a photo of the issue areas tomorrow; I have to go take one close enough to see the issue. It is a one-piece piano type hinge, no upper and lower, just all one piece. It appears all the rivets need to be drilled out, and then the hinge surface fits between two sheets of door panel (I assume two sheets). There are broken parts of the hinge both top and bottom.

Thank you
Mike
 
Mike,

Thank you as usual. I need to learn to start doing a search before I ask things. Well perhaps it is okay, I suspect other people forget, and have to be retold about things, I am no exception.

In addition, just a side note, I did check with RAPID. They wanted something over $2000 for one side of the hinge, and $400 for the other. I do not know about you people, but I do not think our friends at Hawker/Beechcraft are really our friends, or at least unless you have 800K to drop on one of their new products!

Mike
 
Look on the bright side-- $16,000 for a gascolator, those prices for hinge stock. If we got our screwdrivers out, then drilled some rivets and sold the pieces, we'd all be millionaires.

Les
 
Mike, part of getting old is the ability to have conversations over again and learning something new-again ha ha.
 
This is somewhat funny, and I am thinking it is good I have a full physical this week. I said I forget sometimes. I totally forgot about this thread, and I started it.

Turns out, I didn't get around to the door hinge assembly during the annual. Some may recall I spent a great deal of time doing the sound/vibration panels. Well my IA is really leaving for good in April. Therefore, same situation still exists. I was so proud of myself for looking up the information as I had forgotten about this discussion. I did indeed order the NAS40 stuff from Genuine Aircraft Parts, and it should be here tomorrow. I think my IA and I will be installing it on Wednesday of this week.

I went to look at the information again and print some for my IA, and I noticed this thread. I did not notice I started it until I started reading, and thought hmmm, I know this guy, it's me.

I may ask my doc if my memory is okay/normal for my age. Seems like I would have some recollection, but I did not until I read the thread. Anyway, all is well that ends well, and the job is getting done. I love the resource of this group.

I did not see any advice on installation procedures. My IA said he figured we would just drill the old one out, put the new one in place with then close the door. We will shim it to where it looks good and then put the new rivets in it. Any gotchas’ I should know about?

Thank you.
Mike
 
Conway said:
This is somewhat funny, and I am thinking it is good I have a full physical this week. I said I forget sometimes. I totally forgot about this thread, and I started it.

Mike
Click to expand...

Relax, We all do it!

I recently had a week where I worked way too many hours and did too many flights in cattle class, and worked in three different countries.
I got back to the airport with my eyes hanging out of my head and for the life of me, I could not remember where I left the car.
I walked around the long term car-park for an hour and a half looking for it, then gave up and took a cab home.
When I got home, the car was in the drive................then I remembered I had taken the truck!........But I still had no idea where I left it!

You are not alone.
Mark
Very much in the land of Oz
 
When installing the new hinge, just remember that the only available new hinge wire is the MS20253. If you did not remember to order new hinge wire from GAH, along with the new NAS40 hinge halves, you'll need a new hinge wire (MS20253-P2-7200 HINGE PIN SS). You can get it quickly from Aircraft Spruce, without the minimum order size of GAH:
HINGE PIN ONLY ­ Stainless Steel (089" Diameter x 6') P/N 03-49000 $3.80
This is a six-foot length, plenty to do both front doors.

Remember that this wire is designed for the later (unsuitable) MS20001 extruded hinge, and is therefore .001" smaller in diameter than the (unavailable) original wire used with NAS40 hinge. As a result, there will be a slight 'sag' in the door, after the new hinge is installed. So rather than just closing the door to obtain the needed fit for the new hinge installation, the door needs to actually be shimmed or biased toward the high side of the jamb, at the aft end, before the new hinge rivets are set. It will then sag into the middle of the jamb, when the shims are removed and the pin clearance comes into play. Since you have an experienced A&P, he may be familiar with this, but no harm in making sure.
 
Thank you Mark, I feel better. I used to travel for business a lot too. I just rode the bus from long-term parking back to the terminal and back to parking for over an hour too on one trip. I knew which lot, but had no idea where the truck was in it. Those lots are huge! :-)

Mike I did order the wire because the gal at GAH (forget her name) was kind enough to remind me to do so. So it should all get here today. If not, we'll do it Thursday. Thank you for the hint, my IA is a great guy, but he actually asked if you had a "how to". He has talked to you and has great respect for collaboration of the team being a good idea. I will print what you said and take it with me.

EDIT: About two minutes after I posted this the stuff arrived. It all looks perfect.

Thank you again sir!
Mike
 
Here are a couple of photos of the work from yesterday, and the trip to Salinas to do it.

Mike

This is the Watsonville, CA area, and the Monterey Bay in the background heading to the Salinas Valley of California. This entire area is known of the "salad bowl of America". If you eat salad, much of what you eat in season is from this area.
DSCN0741.jpg


I had a broken hinge knuckle on both the top and bottom.
DSCN0755.jpg


This was my IA's idea. I put the door slightly up in the back, which is why the bottom mark is off; the top was off the other way. When we were done, the door fits perfectly.
DSCN0757.jpg


The entire door.
DSCN0760.jpg


Very nifty rivet removal tool.
DSCN0763.jpg


All new product cut to as exact of specs as possible.
DSCN0768.jpg


Look ma... no door.
DSCN0771.jpg


... and we're done.
DSCN0772.jpg


Headed back in to San Jose/Silicon Valley aka home. San Jose is the 10th largest city in the US and largest in the San Francisco Bay Area with almost 1 million people.
DSCN0801.jpg
 
Very nicely done; thanks for the write-up! This project and the project photos would be a terrific subject for a BAC Talk magazine article... hint... hint...!
 
BAC is great! I have the same problem. While waiting for my door latch cable to be built I decided to improve the seal around the window. It had been put on using silicon. After trimming the excess silicon from a very poor installation, it was apparent that the window was held in only by the five screws for the air vent window. Best way to install the window properly? Remove the door first. Only then did I discover that the top two hinge loops had fatigued loose :-(
 
Mike let me remind you that you owe me 3700 bucks for the thinga majik from back in 2008.


=======================




Conway said:
This is somewhat funny, and I am thinking it is good I have a full physical this week. I said I forget sometimes. I totally forgot about this thread, and I started it.

Turns out, I didn't get around to the door hinge assembly during the annual. Some may recall I spent a great deal of time doing the sound/vibration panels. Well my IA is really leaving for good in April. Therefore, same situation still exists. I was so proud of myself for looking up the information as I had forgotten about this discussion. I did indeed order the NAS40 stuff from Genuine Aircraft Parts, and it should be here tomorrow. I think my IA and I will be installing it on Wednesday of this week.

I went to look at the information again and print some for my IA, and I noticed this thread. I did not notice I started it until I started reading, and thought hmmm, I know this guy, it's me.

I may ask my doc if my memory is okay/normal for my age. Seems like I would have some recollection, but I did not until I read the thread. Anyway, all is well that ends well, and the job is getting done. I love the resource of this group.

I did not see any advice on installation procedures. My IA said he figured we would just drill the old one out, put the new one in place with then close the door. We will shim it to where it looks good and then put the new rivets in it. Any gotchas’ I should know about?

Thank you.
Mike
Click to expand...
 
those are standard hinges available from aircraft spruce. I would use the SS piano hinges. You buy two different widths and match them for the job. Cost for parts maybe 15 bucks if I recall correctly. I have no idea on what planet those supply hou$es are on, these are standard hinges available in lots of places.
 
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