Off Line Body Adjustment

[Michael H.]

In an earlier post, we were discussion "off line" body repair and adjustments that were too involved to complete on line at the St Louis assy plant. If an operation required more than the usual amount of body work for some reason, the complete body, on it's body truck, was pulled off line and sent to a repair area. (actually, the "show job" area was used) This particular job had a poor door fit and there was no more adjustment to move the forward edge inboard so, the worker carefully made an alternate adjustment. Thought you would enjoy seeing how this operation was done in the pic's below.

[Michael H.]

Slight Adjustment *NM*

[Michael H.]

A Little More Serious Adjustment *NM*

[Patrick H.]

Re: Slight Adjustment

I believe that Dave Burroughs showed that picture, or one very much like it, in a class he taught (and I attended) 4-5 years ago at Bloomington Gold. I often think of it as we all treat these cars so gently.

Patrick

[Michael H.]

Re: Slight Adjustment

Same picture Patrick. David has copies of many of my pic's.

[mike mccagh]

Re: A Little More Serious Adjustment

you boys will notice they weren't "tweaking" a c-1 or c-2. they fit perfectly. mikie

[Mike McKown]

Re: Slight Adjustment

I'd bet a lot of you people think we built these things "by the Book"!

[mike cobine]

Re: A Little More Serious Adjustment

Looking at the side vent, you see it is an '80-'81, and I bet it is from the last year, seeing Michael has so many of those.

Using the logic that after 26 years, they were still having to use a big hammer to adjust the body, can you imagine how big the hammer had to be back in say '62 or '67?

[Tracy C.]

OK..I see it but I don't understand how this is

going to help anything??

Fiberglass doesn't have any elastic characteristics. You can bend it to a point but it will return back to it's original shape when the bending force is removed. Bend it to far and it snaps like a twig.

Unless this guy are just smashing/crushing/fracturing the underlying cowl panel inward, this won't help anything...

Please don't tell me this is really how they fixed a fitment problem....

tc

[Terry M.]

Re: OK..I see it

I have heard stories of a 2x4 wedged in the hinge area and the door closed on it to "tweak" the hinge adjustment.

[Bill B.]

Re: OK..I see it

The pics are great. I worked the U-2 high altitude aircraft for years with Lockheed. We used similar adjusting techniques. We always called it "hammer to fit, paint to match......Bill B.

[John H.]

Re: OK..I see it

Many different "special tools" were adapted for use in body assembly; oak and hickory 2x4's were particularly useful as raw material for "adjusting tools"

[Michael H.]

Re: OK..I see it but I don't understand how this i

I'm not sure of just exactly what it was that he was bending or reshaping with that hammer but it always worked. I suspect it had to do with the metal panel inside the door or fender that the hinge is attached to. He also often used something that looked like a hacksaw blade to cut through the bond at the rear of the front fender.

The problem most often was the fact that the bond "kicke" too soon and the rear of the louver panels and front edges of the rear 1/4 panels wouldn't lay down properly when the complete assenblies were installed on the cage.

The bond mix had a short working window which worked well with the typical production line speeds used at the mill. There was almost never a problem assembling the front and rear assemblie components as the side fenders and upper panels were all done in a fixture. However, trying to install the entire assembled front or rear clip would, at times, present a problem and an extra thirty seconds would allow the mix to start to kick in some areas, resulting in panels that were not laying down on their bonding strips properly. That's where the little guy with the big hammer comes in. (can't remember his name) I have some other great shots of him here somewhere. Quite talented, old world methods that worked.

[Tracy C.]

I've been at Beechcraft for 27 years and I agree

the guys and gals down on the floor can get pretty creative but they would never resort to anything that would compromise the structural integrity of an airframe. I was the Project Engineer for the Baron and Bonanza line for a couple of years and I've seen a trick or two myself. People do what they gotta do to make it happen with 50 year old mating jigs.

We actually have a Beech Spec still active on old assembly drawings that provides engineering permission to "form and assemble per best shop practice" (use your imagination with that one)

Those were the days, We didn't get to call that one out on Premier I drawings.. but there are a bunch of Bonanzas, Barons and King Air's flying today with the help of that spec.

tc

[John M.]

Re: I've been at Beechcraft for 27 years and I agr

Tracy,
I worked across town at Boeing, and we had the same spec, but by the time it made over to the mod shop,it had changed to:

Cut to size,Beat to fit, Paint to match. LOL