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Brian,
Don't feel bad - I had to do mine 3 times.
First time was just using the forward deck before I added the header tank.
Fit great (which meant something was bound to go wrong). My header tank
support obviously had a twist, because after I bonded the header tank to the
forward deck, no amount (or combination) of heat, pulling with tie-down straps,
or cursing would get that assembly to fit. Drilled out the rivets in the
forward deck, filled in the holes, realigned everything (fit wasn't as good as
the first time, but nothing some trimming and micro wouldn't fix). Second
time, some epoxy or flox from the pad behind the hinge got into the hinge
joints, the hinge pins wouldn't pull out, and I essentialy had a permanently
bonded header tank, only that wasn't my plan. Snapped the hinges off the
forward deck, somehow separated the upper and lower hinge halves, and tried
again, this time with a liberally lubricated hinge pin as well as duct tape
protecting the hinge joint.
The point of this story is: You've got at
least two more tries before you can claim "Worst Header Tank Attachment
Experience".
I've been at it with this kit for (this number
can't be right) just over 4000 hours and 10 years, and I can sympathize with the
desire to just get the part finished, but everybody else has pretty much covered
why you wouldn't want to do this. If those hinges are kicking your butt,
use the screw method. I saw a beautiful LNC2 at Oshkosh a few years ago
that had a screwed-on header tank (naturally, AFTER I went through all that with
the hinges). Think about this: If you sprung a leak between the
header tank and the forward deck on the forward side of your header tank, what
would you do?
Gary Fitzgerald
LNC2 extra-slow build
~70%
engine: TBD
St. Charles, MO
----- Original Message -----
Anyone have good reasoning as to why I shouldn't
permanantly bond my header tank on? I tried the hinge method and the fit
with the cowling was terrible so I had to take the entire thing apart
today.
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