"Incident" repair advice

[avidflyer]

Just happened to look at your first pictures and see that your spars have the internal extruded verticle stiffener. I would personally be less worried about some extra holes in these spars than ones without that type of stiffener. I would think they are stronger than the .065" spars used now on Kitfoxes. Just my opinion though. Another question to throw by John at Kitfox if you call him. Jim Chuk

[efwd]

I was thinking that Jim's idea was great and I would think drilling the holes to accommodate the next size up rivet would take care of a sloppy install of the same size. To place the holes in the brackets you can use a Hole Duplicator-Bushing Type available from Aircraft Spruce.
Eddie

[kiwi3]

Photo of drag tube bracket on Model 3, S/n 1013 which was built in 1991.
Hope this helps.Felt there was a Service Letter, or similar update information put out on forum, but am unable to locate it. Ian

[avidflyer]

Looking at the brackets, it looks like it would be hard to hit the old holes using them. The old holes would probably be under the welded tube somewhat. There are 6 holes in them however, so maybe intentionally not hitting the old holes and still using the original style aluminum tubes isn't so much of a concern. Jim Chuk

[dholly]

Hi Robert,

I would not bother with installing the new drag tube brackets, probably just replicate a new diagonal brace per the manual and attach with Hysol and next upsize rivet. First end is easy to fit to the existing mounting hole in the spar, make a simple D.I.Y. hole duplicator for the other (attached pics of one I used for locating spar bushing holes). You can temporarily rivet the hole replicator into the existing hole with the original rivet size called for in the manual, locate the hole position on the drag tube end tab, then drill out the temp rivet. Drill out spar hole for next upsize rivet and final mounting. Also, I recommend adding corner gussets between the diagonal bracing and spar. Coat ply gusset with Hysol to prevent water infiltration.