Fuselage reinforcement with Scott 3200

[jwoischke]

I’m in the process of buying a 120 or 140. Two of the 140’s I’ve looked at have a large reinforcement plate on each side of the rear fuselage below the elevator. Both appear to have also had some repairs performed on the lower rear fin area. I’m wondering if these are part of a reinforcement kit. These plates are bolted in place with many bolts on each side. It is my understanding that the original tail wheel assembly was held in place with rivets. Replacing those rivets would be difficult - hence the reinforcements having larger bolts instead. Thank you for your input.

[6597]

Pictures would be helpful, not perfectly sure what you are asking or describing.

Here's a pic of what the tailwheel bracket looks like, with a variety of fasteners. They are supposed to be rivets but over time folks have used bolts or a combination. The stabilizer/fin/rudder need to be removed to replace the tailwheel bracket properly.

There is damage on this rudder from most likely the tailwheel spring having failed and things popping upwards.

P9210040small.JPG (136.53 KiB) Viewed 2967 times

[V529]

I’m in the process of buying a 120 or 140. Two of the 140’s I’ve looked at have a large reinforcement plate on each side of the rear fuselage below the elevator. Both appear to have also had some repairs performed on the lower rear fin area. I’m wondering if these are part of a reinforcement kit. These plates are bolted in place with many bolts on each side. It is my understanding that the original tail wheel assembly was held in place with rivets. Replacing those rivets would be difficult - hence the reinforcements having larger bolts instead. Thank you for your input.

Pictures would help. It's "typical" for the skin to crack just below the horizontal at the back. It's also "typical" for the horizontal to crack on top, just outboard of the fuselage.....

[jwoischke]

I’ve attached three images. One appears to have rivets, the others have bolts. One person I spoke with said that the bolts would be easier than Rivets to install-but that neither one would be easy.

[6597]

OK, I had to take your last picture and blow it up to see a small repair patch above the tailwheel bracket, but the first 2 pics are just straight forward tailwheel brackets that are attached with nuts/bolts. This tailwheel bracket is supposed to be held on with rivets but your pics show nuts/bolts, not ideal but what folks do. I don't know about legalities. Here's a pic of a 'fresh' tailwheel bracket from Univair. They get dinged up over the years, cracks etc from bad landings. You absolutely have to remove the stabilizer and fin/rudder to put on a new one. If the one you are looking to purchase does not have any cracks or otherwise appears to be servicable then maybe you are OK, others on the Forum will chime in shortly.

tailwheelbracket.jpg (35.99 KiB) Viewed 2796 times