Nose gear door

[aerobat95]

Hey guys quick question for you....is there and upgrade to the nose gear doors for a '74F?  If not what do you do if you need to replace them??

Thanks

Ray

[KSMooniac]

Ray,

I purchased a new pair of overlapping nose gear doors to replace mine a couple of years ago.  I sourced them from LASAR, but they are Mooney-made parts, so no telling if there are any in stock or available for order at this point.  They were about $900 for the pair IIRC.  My originals were likely the same as yours.  They were eroded pretty severely on the front edges.

[aerobat95]

Mine are overall in pretty good condition.  On the pilot side there is a slight crack towards the edge where the curved lip is.  It looks like it was stopped drilled and fixed with some fiberglass on the inside.  The crack does not seem to be getting bigger, but if I could replace or upgrade them I think I would just go ahead and do that.  I tried calling Mooney today and they said that do have some parts and others are contracted out.  But, the guy that I would need to talk to wasnt there.  What needs to happen is someone needs to come up with a carbon fiber version and get them STC'd.  Whats crazy is that when I was in college we made pretty complex fiberglass and carbon fiber parts by first making molds on a CNC machine.  It wouldn't be hard to make at all....getting them STC'd would be the tricky part.

[scottfromiowa]

I put over-lapping "K" doors on my 66E.  The doors and the one piece belly were both Laser.

[Frosty]

On my M20A the nose gear doors had holes burned/scorched in the fiberglass by proximity to the exhaust in addition to many years of wear and tear.  I took them off, sanded them down, and rebuilt them using S-Glass using AeroPoxy, standard fiber glass repair techniques.  I found a local body shop that could match the paint and a friend with a paint gun to refinish them.  My A&P inspector had no problem signing off installing refurbished nose gear doors.  They worked great, after linkage adjustment, when we swung the gear and looked like new.

[aerobat95]

Frosty, 

Are your nose gear doors completely made of fiberglass?  or metal? 

[KSMooniac]

Fiberglass or carbon fiber gear doors sound intriguing, but I would bet a dollar that F/G would be heavier and thicker than aluminum, and carbon fiber would be a wash but much more expensive.  The tricky part is the attachment of the piano hinge and the rod end clevis...the parts would need to be fairly thick to have similar strength as aluminum at the attachment locations, and by then it makes the original aluminum part look pretty good from a cost and weight perspective.

Molds could actually be made from the doors themselves without too much difficulty, but locating the rod end attachment on the inside could be tricky, and it needs to be right to make the retraction kinematics work correctly.

[flight2000]

Quote: aerobat95

Frosty, 

On my M20A the nose gear doors had holes burned/scorched in the fiberglass by proximity to the exhaust in addition to many years of wear and tear.  I took them off, sanded them down, and rebuilt them using S-Glass using AeroPoxy, standard fiber glass repair techniques.  I found a local body shop that could match the paint and a friend with a paint gun to refinish them.  My A&P inspector had no problem signing off installing refurbished nose gear doors.  They worked great, after linkage adjustment, when we swung the gear and looked like new.

Are your nose gear doors completely made of fiberglass?  or metal? 

[aerobat95]

Interesting....so some of the older Mooneys had 100% glass doors and then Mooney went to aluminum at some point....interesting.

[flight2000]

Hmmm, my response posted from Flight2000. It was my response.

Frosty

[flight2000]

Hmmm, my response posted from Flight2000. It was my response.

Frosty

[aerobat95]

LOL.....I wonder why it does that sometimes.....I have seen some responses that I didnt know I made...

[aerobat95]

must be a glitch in the matrix.....

[flight2000]

Just make sure you look in the upper right hand corner to see if it is really you that is logged in.  If not, just log out and log back in.  Thanks for padding my stats though...

Brian

(from the real flight2000... )

[Shadrach]

Quote: aerobat95

Interesting....so some of the older Mooneys had 100% glass doors and then Mooney went to aluminum at some point....interesting.

[testwest]

Lone Star used to have a set of overlapping doors in stock....

[jbreda]

If you would like to replace them with the original non-overlapping nose gear doors, I have a nice set that I could sell for less than the overlapping version.  johnabreda@yahoo.com

Thanks

John Breda