Baggage Door

Got the baggage door strut installed tonight! After measuring open and closed distances, I fabricated some mounting brackets, riveted the inside door skin into place, drilled a couple holes and installed some #8 machine screws purchased in the "aviation aisle" of the local home supply store. The resulting setup looked like this:

Baggage door strut laid into position (mockup, not fastened yet)

Closed eye-to-eye distance of 5.5"

Open eye-to-eye distance 9-1/8"

The geometry came out great! To attach the strut on the airplane side, I ran a 2" long #8 machine screw down through the F-1034B/F Seat Back Braces and cut some leftover aluminum tubing to use as a spacer between the two halves. You can kind of see it in the first photo above. After temporarily installing some washers and nuts, I was able to verify the proper movement and latching of the door, which seemed to operate perfectly!

There's just one problem.

Whoever posted in the forums that they used (and recommended) a *20-lb* force gas spring is either considerably stronger than I am, or completely insane. 20 pounds doesn't seem like a heck of a lot, but rigged up in this manner, it is WAY too strong. When you pop the latch, the baggage door jumps open and basically punches you straight in the gut if you're not ready for it. If only I had the camera rolling the first time I opened the door, all proud of my work.

So, I'll be ordering a different strut from McMaster with a 5-lb force rating (#9417K6) as well as returning the bracket that I had originally ordered. The bracket was a good idea, but being relatively large and made of steel, it was way too big and bulky to really use on the baggage door. It was much easier (and cheaper) to make my own bracket out of aluminum angle.

Last order of business for the baggage door: Fit a micro-switch to the F-1031 Baggage Door Seal Channel. Hopefully we'll be able to knock that out this weekend, and finally get around to painting the interior too!