Parts for Sale

I am going through the hanger and putting all of the un-needed items up for sale and will be adding items for the next couple of weeks so check back if you dont see anything that you need right now. We like the Dynon setup in our RV-4 so much we are going to do a Dynon setup as well for the new RV-6a.

I prefer paypal for payment and prefer to just ship to the continental USA but open to others.
My paypal account is tomvelvick@cox.net.



Never used RV-6 gear leg.
Priced at 1/2 of Vans price plus whatever the shipping is.
Ordered two new RV-4 long gear legs and Vans sent a RV-6 gear leg by mistake. We couldnt send it back as we had already painted it with a white epoxy paint.














New RV-4 undrilled Gear Leg.
Priced at 1/2 of Vans price plus whatever the shipping is.














Cleveland brake master cylinders removed from RV-4.
$80 plus $10 shipping.

Removed to replace with new Matco master cylinders that we were able to mount right side up instead of upside down as these Cleveland master cylinders were mounted. Dissasembled and checked the interior parts. Everything looks ok. Should probably replace the O-rings before use. They look ok but are old.










































Vans 2 1/4 Voltage gauge
$25 plus $ 8 shipping












Rapco 211C Vacuum Pump and filter. $100 plus $15 shipping to USA. Working when removed from RV-4 and replaced with B&C 8 amp standby alternator.

Balmar ARS-4 Sophisticated microprocessor Voltage Regulator for externally regulated alternator. Never Used. List price $299 for sale for $125. $12.00 shipping.
Specs at http://www.balmar.net/page18-ars4.html
I am also putting this for sale on ebay in the marine division, so its subject to prior sale.

RV-4 Wing spars in original shipping box.
50% of Vans listed price plus shipping.
I was going to rebuilt a set of wings but ended up buying a RV-4 wing kit with phlogisten spars.

More stuff to be added later.

The Need for Speed

53L has most of the work done on her, but she still isnt as fast as other RVs so we are going to spend some time in trying to get another 10 mph out of her. To start, we are going to change out the old stlye wheelpants for Vans new pressure recovery wheelpants. They are larger than the old style, but their aerodynamic shape is supposed to give a 3 to 5 mph speed increase. We shall see.

Elevator Counterweights and skins

Elevator counterweights were trimmed from rectangular blocks of lead from Vans aircraft. The first one took about 1200 strokes of my vixen file to smooth into the correct shape. I found out on the others that I could use a hacksaw blade to make the preliminary cut and save a lot of time and filing!







The elevator counterweight skins were clamped into place for for drilling to the counterweight spar underneath.











Top of counterweight skin drilled and clecoed.

Trim Tab... 2nd Day

The electric trim motor from Ray Allen comes with two rods. The shorter one works on the RV-6. The RV-4 takes the longer rod. I had to trim 1 1/4" off the longer rod.





Adjusting the length and interference on the elevator skin with the old trim tab.







I added an extra piece of .032 alumimum to the tab arm. It takes most of the slack between the sides of the clevis arms and najes the tab arm a little stronger. Not necessary according to the plans, but I am trying to eliminate all slop in the trim system that I can. It should help with the altitude hold.

A battery from a cordless drill makes a great 12 volt source for running the electric trim motor back and forth.







Tab arm is riveted to trim tab. Plans call for MD-42BS pop rivets. I was able to use AN426-4 rivets because I had not riveted the top of the trim tab yet.










Trim tab complete, installed on wing and adjusted for length.

Left Elevator 6th day and Trim Tab Assembly

My solution from yesterdays problem of riveting the trim tab spar and piano hinge was to take a squeezer die and cut off the shaft. After smoothing off the bottom of the die, I superglued it to my no-hole yoke as shown in the picture below.





This worked great and kept the yoke from bending the piano hinge.









I decided to add a couple of stiffeners to the trim tab as is done with the elevators. The plans dont call for them; however, our old trim tab had flexed a little so maybe this will help the new trim tab.






Lining up the new tab against the piano hinge to make sure the trim tab edge line will match the edge line of the elevator.












Drilling the piano hinge to the trim tab.









Drilling the trim tab spar to the top of the trim tab.










Deburred, dimpled and primed everything.














Almost finished trim tab. The top wont be riveted until the two pieces of angle that attach to the trim motor arm are riveted to the trim tab tomorrow.

Left Elevator... 5th day

Drilled hole in spar for the 5 wires that go to the electric trim motor and put in a plastic grommet.








Drilled and cleoced the piano hinge that holds the trim tab. Plans call for AN257-p2, however, the AN257-P3 piano hinge (a little deeper hinge) fit better so that is what I used.






A problem came up in riveting the piano hinge to the spar. The heads on the piano hinge interfer with the squeezer because they are lower than the rivet. If I turned the piano hinge over, it would work fine, but the top of the piano hinge would protrude a little above the elevator. Going to quit for the evening and research how to fix this.

Left Elevator Continued..4th day

Laid out the lines on the aluminum cut from the left elevator to make the trim tab from.
Cut out rough shape using hand shears.





Installed spar skeleton into skins and started all the prep work that needed to be finished before riveting. Finished drilling and dimpling all holes into skeleton.






Cut edges from leading edge for the counterweight rib skins will go.









Cut edges from leading edges for where the horizontal stabilizer attach brackts will mate with the rod end bearings on the elevator. Skins are cut 1/8 inch undersize on each end. Final cuts will be made after leading edge skin is rolled and pop riveted together.



Left elevator is ready for final riveting. Am going to go home and review all plans to make sure I didnt overlook anything before riveting elevator skin to spar skeleton tomorrow.

Left Elevator Continued..3rd day

Drilled electric trim brace to elevator skin.
Drilled holes at each corner of cutout and enlarged with unibit.








I used a cutoff wheel to cut between each of the holes.









Preliminary hole shaped. Now lots of filing and sanding and shaping to get it to final shape.








Since the bracket for the RV-6 is the same as for the RV-4, borrowed the bracket and motor from the RV-6 and used it as a template to cut the outer shape into the elevator skin and as a guide for the holes for the 7 screws that will hold the bracket and motor to the elevator.



Hole in skin was cut the same way as the electric trim brace. Drill a hole at each corner , use a cutoff wheel to cut between the holes and then file and sand to final shape.







K1100-6 countersunk platenuts are attached to the electric trim bracket .










Platenuts attached. Now time to prime and backrivet plate to skin.








Electric trim bracket riveted to skin and motor and cover temporarilly installed. Everything fits ok. Whew! I have to remember to drill a hole in the spar behind the motor because as it retracts the shaft extends backwards from the motor and will hit against the spar unless a hole is drilled for it to extend through.


Time to call it a night and head home to barbarque some steaks on the new grill.

Left Elevator Continued...2nd day

Cut the aluminum from the left elevator skin to make the trim tab. If I cut it wrong, I will have to start over on the left elevator.







Finished drilling holes for stiffeners and spar.
I used the same template I made for the right elevator which saved some time.











Fabricated the stiffeners from 3/4 x 3/4 x .032 angle and drilled to skins.








Primed elevator skin and stiffeners and riveted stiffeners to skin.









Taped 1/8 in metal rod to bend in skin and used home made brake to finish bend in elevator skin.








Riveted left elevator horn to spar.











Started laying out brace for electric trim option for elevator.
Vans traced out opening on sheet of aluminum. You have to cut it out yourself.
Somehow I either lost of didnt order the plans for the electric trim option so am using the plans from the RV-6 to fab the trim on the RV-4 elevator.