The Cessna 120-140 Association Forum

Do the lower door posts ever get deformed a bit? The gearboxes are fine but the skin of the post is a bit out of plane on the part facing aft, maybe 4" up from the front lower corner of the door frame. I am trying to work out the loads in that area. The long piece of aluminum that runs up the door post on the inside, riveted to its edge looks normal. I realize there is a whole cracking thing that occurs down near the strut attachment bolt, with various reinforcement kit plates that can be added there, but that is not the area where this is occurring and I don't see any cracks anywhere in the typical locations.

The gear box, door posts and front spar make up the major structural bulkhead from which the entire rest of the plane is hung. I personally would not accept any deformation in any of those 4 components.

How about posting a picture?

Yes sorry to not post any photos; I thought I had one but no dice. Its on my list of to-do's for today. Had to get my wife an unexpected CT brain this morning instead, but thankfully no new problems there.

Important stuff comes first!

I have a bunch more but basically it looks like this

Can't really tell too much from those. Can you get three pictures of the area in the blue circle, close up. one from the rear facing forward, one from the interior pointed outward, and one straight on the the bend (midway between the first two)?

It is pretty subtle, but you can feel it when you run your hand down the smooth face of the post.

I will probably have to take some more photos to get the ones you requested.