Kitfox Model II Rebuild

[KitfoxSS]

Thank you all for the well wishes.
It means a lot to me.
I'm only able to work on it on the weekends but we go at it the whole time.
My grandfather comes down every few hours to see how my father and I are making out.
He helped build the plane and he enjoys seeing me tackle it now.
Its always good to be with and doing something with family.

Part III

The firewall has been removed.
The plane has been throughly washed and cleaned and we began to take apart all the control surfaces.
Some very light surface rust was evident in a few areas. So we began to disassemble and clean those items.

The original engine is a Rotax 532.
With less then 300 hours, its not a bad candidate for a rebuild.
But hasn't run in decade though most likely.
The prop was starting to delaminate when my father sold the plane. At this point it needs to be replaced.

Well it turns out, good luck and fortune has struck me.
I found a gentleman who was sitting on quite the pack of items.
This man had a Kitfox Model II that was never completed.
He ended up selling the kit, but the buyer didn't want the engine and some other items.
So I am now the proud owner of a never been used, was still in the shipping box, Rotax 582.
As well as the Exhaust, Bing Carbs, and all the engine related items that shipped from Denny Kitfox back in the early 90's.
As well...as brand new still in box, GSC propellers.

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Having dual ignition over single is worth it to me for the safety factor alone.
As well as not dealing with points ignition.
I'll be setting up and running the oil injection system as well.

[KitfoxSS]

Part IV

A little before and after.

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Prior to any restoration work.
Light surface rust, a ding on the forward tube, and cleaning to be done.
After a little welding that was fixed. All the surface rust was treated, removed, and then the tubes were given a fresh coating.

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All the control surfaces have been removed.
Cleaned up, recoated where applicable, and lubricated. Reinstallation and it all works flawlessly.

Time to move onto the next step.
Planning the replacement of the dash.
And oh boy....has that been a doozy.
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[PaulSS]

Is that Adobe you're using for the panel design?

I'm looking for a simple CAD-type app that I can use. I already know the layout I'd like and have drawn it to scale but I'd like to get it laid out on a CAD-type app with all measurements etc.

My main trouble is I've never used CAD before and some of the apps are way more complicated than what I need/would like.

[KitfoxSS]

Hey Paul, Its a program called Rhinoceros 3D.
It is a CAD design program, but I'm not very fluent in it.
I'm having help from someone who is much more adept at it than I.
CAD can be a bit challenging for sure and Rhino 3D is no exception.
Its easy to mess up where your placing things in relative 3D space. But like all things it just takes practice. I believe Rhino 3D is a commercial software though, not sure what it cost to buy.

The reason my layout is being done in CAD software, is because I have access to a cnc machine that will mill out the panel for me.
And it has to be done with precision and coordinated on a 3d plane for it to know where to move the drill bit and cut and for how deep.
If you plan to cut the panel out the old fashion way, then just doing a mock layup in a paint program like Adobe or Gimp would be fine to help you figure out where to mark everything at. Just make sure to get the proper hole dimensions and square sizes to match.

Best of luck on your layout Paul.

[PaulSS]

Thank you for your comprehensive reply and for details of the CAD app. I'm afraid you're right and think this would be more complicated than what I actually need. I just wanted to convert my true-to-scale drawing at home into a properly measured and accurate diagram. It's not a huge deal as the EuroFOX factory will do it and they'll cut my panel but it's just me and my normal impatience/too much time on my hands/love of geekery

[KitfoxSS]

I'm sorry to hear it won't work out for you Paul.
If possible, you could create an adobe image in inches instead of pixels and set the size of the canvas to your instrument layout dimensions.
Then just figure the proper sizing for gauges, thats what I did as a rough start.


Part V


After many hours of tinkering, the CAD file was complete.
We fired up the CNC machine and did a test run on a piece of wood to verify everything would work.

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We found a few issues and made changes, cutting a few boards in the pursuit.
But finally, we found the perfect layout that would work.
And thus we changed out drill bits and began to cut that nice shiny piece of aluminum.

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Since that would take several hours to complete, my father watched the machine while I worked on installing the new ELT.
I ended up going for an ARTEX 345. I liked the idea of only dealing with one battery instead of the 3 that the ARK equivalent version requires.
Plus the company is less then a two hour drive from me so bonus.

I decided to mount it to the tube frame behind the seat. This way I can easily reach it by just removing the turtle deck.
The tray was easy to adel clamp in several place to the tube and is now secured and tight to the frame.

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Following that, I made a bracket/ground plane for the antenna to mount and be fitted to the tube chassis as well.
Due to the angle of the roll bars I had to give an angle to the bracket, so that the whip antenna would not hit the fabric and instead be perfectly in line with the cavity well down the tail section.

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That being done, the panel had wrapped up.
We debur'd it and mounted it up for a test fit.
It was quite the sight......until it dawn on us.
We tested every instrument.....every switch.....every item.
But somehow, three of us, forgot to test the radio for clearance.

You can guess what we found.

So..... I have another sheet on order to get here next weekend.
Live and learn.

[KitfoxSS]

Part VI

Well after learning our lesson, we made the needed changes to get the radio in a spot that would work.
Once confirmed the second piece of aluminum was cut and safe to say, I have the basic layout of the dash now in order.

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The back brace has been flush mount riveted on and the only thing left is to prep it for paint.
I will be hydrodipping a design on to it later in the week.

Moving on, we started to run the new fuel line.
Aluminum tubing and some aluminum line separators to hold it in place and the result is a nice simple fuel line system that should get the job done.
The two wing tanks exit the wings and are met with fuel disconnect valves. The lines then run down into the back of the dash and T into the header tank.
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Moving on, I started to disconnect and take the brakes off.

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The plan was to rebuild the calipers and then reattach everything and bleed the brakes.
But the parts ordered ended up being the wrong ones. So It'll have to wait till next weekend.

One step at a time.

In the meantime.
Interesting thing I found in the pile of letters and build notes from 1990.
Turns out Denny Aerocraft did a test on the Model II / III Wing struts. At 1050 Gross weight. They took the struts to +14G simulated load with out issue. +15G it finally snapped.
Interesting read.

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[ken nougaret]

Looking good. You can't be far from me, because as you say the love bugs have been horrible the last 2 weekends.

[efwd]

Yes that panel turned out nice. I considered doing that myself. Watched a lot of hydro dip videos but didn't do it. Neat process with beautiful results.

[KitfoxSS]

Thank you for the well wishes and kind words.
The good lord has looked after us, and the family member is fine now and at home making a speedy recovery.

I saw the hydrodip process by chance on Youtube some time back and thought. "You know...thats really neat." After some research I figured it couldn't be too hard.
And ultimately its not very hard. It just takes a little practice. Like anything painting wise the biggest step is the prep work.
Their is a few little tricks to it but its mostly just making sure you have adequate dipping room and depth for the part. The water is a nice 80 ish degrees F.
You make a border on the film with tape. Cut 4 relief slots on the tape so the film can expand a little as it will want to. Sit film on top of water a good minute. Spray activator. Then 20 seconds later or so...dip. Their are plenty of youtube videos showing how to do it in depth.

Like I said, its not hard. Just practice with something small to get used to it first.
If you mess up the dip. Just take some acetone on a rag and it will wipe right off and leave the paint underneath fine.
Let it dry...then try to dip again. Once you've dipped, let it sit a day or so, then clear coat it to protect the design.