The Murphy Builders Site

Sounds like you are ahead of me Clay. I'm in no hurry as I'm having too
much fun on wheels these days.

My notes on bulkhead G that the main gear mounts to are as follows for
the 03/27/95 manual:

section 14 bulkhead G
Step A. delay this till much later after installing FL201,202,36,204
etc. ie see step T and Y or the holes will be in the wrong place for
tying into witches hat. A similar problem will appear for the holes in
FL201 etc where the rivets need to center on the witches hat on the
backside of the bulkhead. I think the manual suggests that the witches
hat can be expanded or compressed later to fit the rivet holes but that
is pretty ridiculous.

step G Put on FL204 before doing this

step I no don't drill second and third hole for outboard ends or it
will cause a conflict later

step M and N don't do this, use Wayne's method as posted on the dcsol site

step R no drill this later so the drain holes are centered on flange of
FL203 on the other side of the builkhead

step O and P no see step M note.

step Z OK except don't drill centerline holes yet as they will likely
be in the wrong place for the FL205 stop block

section 15
step J Don't rivet FL37, install the aft bottom skin first. Wayne
confirmed this as well.


Regarding the die springs:
I just picked up a set in Kitchener. Davco tooling had them in stock at
$28. each. 0.75" rod or internal hole, 1.5" external diameter, 3.5"
long, extra heavy duty. 1715 lb max strength at full deflection . Most
manufacturer's (not all) color the extra heavy duty springs green. Some
places only stock heavy duty so specify EXTRA heavy duty. MSD also
lists them for about US$18. Tipco in Brampton (tipcopunch.com) likely
has them as well a few other places that came up with a search for "die
springs toronto"

The existing upgraded aluminum washers FL265 (265 not 266 Cec) are 5/16"
thick and Bob said he machined those to seat the bottom of the springs
and keep them centered. (The early floats just used AN washers whereas
the later ones used FL265's on the ends and better fitting stainless
washers between the pucks). I don't think the FL265's are thick enough
to machine adequately so I think I'll make new ones out of 1.5" round
aluminum stock about 7/16" thick machined down to 3/4" diameter for
about 1/4" to keep the springs centered and provide 0.1" or so preload.
A bit of a pain to do eight of them but that is best idea I've had so
far. I think that machining the existing washers will leave the full
diameter section too thin to take the load without cracking although I
don't know for sure what the aluminum alloy is..

Regarding the hydraulic tubing:
After talking with several fellows I have decided to scrap the MAM
supplied stuff and go with DOT certified plastic air brake tubing and
metal fittings. I haven't decided about the brake line yet.

Ken

Clay Smith wrote:

Hey Ken, thanks for the info on the bottom bulkheads. Any other info or
notes you may have would be useful. As you know the instructions are not
always clear. I'm just about ready to start riveting the side skins to the
top deck. I think that I can rivet the entire G to LB bulkhead including
the wheel wells together as single unit and later place into the top deck.

Thanks
Clay
----- Original Message -----
From: "Ken" <klehman@albedo.net>
To: <rebel-builders@dcsol.com>
Sent: Thursday, March 15, 2007 2:21 PM
Subject: [rebel-builders] 1800 float bottom bulkheads (half bulkheads)

First time float builders might want to note on page 3-44 (03/27/95)
section 20 Bottom Bulkheads:
"The 3 bottom bulkheads per float install ahead of the step so the
bottom of the V must be trimmed to a 5/8" opening for the keel, same as
the adjacent full bulkheads. The trimmed section will also need to be
extended upwards far enough to let water drain to the rear pump outs."
There is no mention of this anywhere that I can find.

Also refer to Wayne's post of 11/11/2002 "bulkhead cracks on 1800
floats". If you elect to install those doublers you might also want to
shorten the center stringer a bit to allow room for a larger drain hole.
With a 1/4" high drain there I am down to 5/16" edge distance on the
lower stringer rivet and that is an obvious place to crack I suspect.
The pic referred to in that post does not seem to be in the archives
anymore.

I also have some notes for the main gear bulkhead that I could post if
there is any interest in comments like this.

Ken

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