Lift Strut FishMouth Fitment to fuselage

[rcbif]

Went to rig the wings tonight and discovered fitment issues with the fishmouth portion of the lift struts where they attach to the fuselage.

1. There is weld/ metal builup around both top and bottom inside of the fishmouth, forming lips. These lips prevented them from fitting on the lug on the fuselage. This was not a big deal to me, but I wondered what this buildup is from in the first place? I can see the bottom of the fishmouth or the Jaw is thicker, perhaps two plates doubled together and welded?
But then the top plate also has this, but is thinner? Is it also a doubled plate seam welded? My last (unlikely) thought was this was not weld, but melded edges from from torch cut?

2. Even with the weld ground flush inside the fish mouth (only took off just enough for a snug fit), the outer radius of the fish mouth hits the radius of the bracket. I have about .050 more to go, but the fishmouth starts to hit the radius on the fuselage attachment point. The lift strut hole is still more than a diameter away from the outer radius, but I am leery about taking material off that top mouth portion (re-profiling the outer radius) without knowing if that is a weld.

Any experience with this? Any non-powder coated pics of one of these aero lift struts to see what is under there?

Thanks

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[Delta Whisky]

RCBIF - sorry to not remember the details but I did have an experience much like yours. Since I don't know why anyone would run a bead around a thick plate, vs. two plates that needed to be welded together, I assumed the latter and went ahead and dressed down the weld on the lift strut to make things go together. I'm headed out to the shop know and I'll check to see if I can add any additional details later. (I painted over the filed areas so no promises made.)

[Delta Whisky]

I can't add much to the story - except that I did verify that the welds are across two plates/sheet stock. Comparing my fuse to yours, It looks like I improved the radius that the lift strut is hitting and I took just a tad off of the end of the strut. HTH. R, Darrel

[rcbif]

Thanks for the reply, I ended up cleaning the weld out of the mouth, trimming the upper mouth .050-.075", and adding a radius to the upper mouth to contour to the weld on the fuselage.

Only issue when done, was one mouth was slightly crooked. If I attach the lift strut at the fuselage only, (and support the lift strut by hand) the front rod end is 1" highter than the rear. The other is perfect. I put the wings on today, and the crooked one did give up a fit, but does settle down with the weight of the wing. When, the wing comes off again, I may take off .010 or so to relieve some of the twist. I only feel comfortable taking off that much because the aero lift strut mouth plates are thicker than the stock round tube lift struts, much beefier.