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Fuselage reinforcement with Scott 3200
Posted: Tue Sep 23, 2025 7:17 pm
by 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.
Re: Fuselage reinforcement with Scott 3200
Posted: Tue Sep 23, 2025 8:06 pm
by 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 145 times
Re: Fuselage reinforcement with Scott 3200
Posted: Tue Sep 23, 2025 8:46 pm
by V529
jwoischke wrote: ↑Tue Sep 23, 2025 7:17 pm
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.....