So I have had this Cessna 182 scheduled to do the WingX extensions plus Sportsman cuff for a while now.. Due to scheduling and other issues that came up during a couple other annual inspections it got delayed several times until we were finally able to start at the beginning of the week.. Figured I would do a thread documenting the mods plus the issues we have found..



Here is the airplane...

First step I wanted to do is add the packer and doubler strips in the wings for the WingX extension. These parts are installed in the wing at the top of the front spar outboard of the wing attach point. Basically it extends a bulbed “angle” that is already part of the wing by about 20 inches..



These are the parts that are installed.. the part resting against the ladder is the “packer” and the part on top of that I am holding is the “doubler”...



The parts are mounted in the wing extending and doubling this angle with the “bulb”.. this angle ends just before the rib shown.. I have already drilled out the necessary rivets in the spar...



Here are the parts in place ready to rivet in..



By the way, there are 4 inspection hole backers and plates included in the kit that you can install in the wings for access...



All of the rivets are increased to 5/32 and additional rivets are installed at a 1 inch spacing..



A good assortment of long reach “Clecos” is a must have for This project.. both the packer and doubler are 1/8 inch aluminum.. add the wing skin and internal structure and there is at least 3/8 inch worth of material that needs to be riveted together..



There is a stainless strap that gets installed on the bottom of the front spar right where the wing strut attaches... this part is only installed if the aircraft DOES NOT have the doubler angle installed from the factory... this aircraft is old enough being a 58 that the strap is required.. So, we removed the strut to facilitate the installation... And that’s where we found the BIG problem..



Right here... this is the fuselage bulkhead that the lower wing strut attaches to.. there is a MAJOR crack going right through those two holes in the center..



Not only is it cracked on the one side, it also has a smaller crack on the other side... What is interesting.. These cracks are in the area where AD 2020-18-01 is inspected.. BUT.. The AD only applies to 182E models and up.. This is a 182A and is not affected by the AD... Definitely going to inspect every airplane in this area more thoroughly, AD or not..



This belly panel also had a lot of the rivets replaced with larger ones to the point where most of them
Pulled right through the panel... easy piece to make but points to previous repairs that were not really done correctly..



Decided to remove the wings for a couple reasons.. one, less weight on the airframe when removing the bulkhead. Two, less chance of them getting damaged by falling off a high stand. Three, owner always wanted to install the Monarch long range wing tanks..



This is what’s left of a Cessna 175 airframe... We robbed the baggage door off of it a while back and installed that in a 170 via STC.. A lot of the airframe parts from Cessna 170, 172, 175, 180, 182 and even 185’s are the same parts.. I actually used the outboard left gear attach casting out of this to repair a different 182... Now I am going to remove the bulkhead out of it to replace the cracked one... I did verify the bulkhead part numbers first and they are the same between models..



Rolled the 175 on its top and started drilling... at the same time I am figuring the best way to remove the bulkhead with minimal rivet drilling so I can repeat it on the 182..



Trying to do the whole job with just this section of belly skin removed..



And a look at the 175 bulkhead area that is cracked on the 182... This is a clean piece with hardly any dirt and oil on it..



And the other side...



And after a lot of drilling, head scratching and yanking we got the bulkhead out in one piece....
I am going to disassemble this a little more to make it easier to install. Plus I want to go ahead and at least give it a epoxy primer coat since there is some minor aluminum corrosion in areas where it was riveted to the floor boards and belly skin that needs to be cleaned off anyway..

More to come..

Brian


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Wow Brian, this is going to be good! Thanks for taking the time to share this with all of us.

Kurt

I agree, thanks for sharing.
I like "after" pics better,
but also seeing the "before" is very educational.

At this point, maybe consider t/w conversion???

Man, that rabbit hole got deeper really fast.... ..very interesting documentation, however, thanks,

MTV

C180_guy wrote:At this point, maybe consider t/w conversion???

I mentioned it... owner does not want to go to that extreme...

Brian


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Double post

I’ll be following!

Brian-StevesAircraft wrote:

C180_guy wrote:At this point, maybe consider t/w conversion???

I mentioned it... owner does not want to go to that extreme...

Brian


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Smart, IMHO

MTV

Love seeing info like this with pictures. I have entertained myself for hours looking at the parts manual and inside of my 180.

wow, that got serious quick, will keep up on this one for sure considering it is the same aircraft as my own.

Today’s work...Sorry about the picture quality.. TapaTalk sucks for that, Zane and I are working on something to make them better, meanwhile this is what I have to work with..



The bulkhead removed with some of the component parts of the bulkhead drilled off to make re installing easier..



Close up of same just showing the parts... the long formed angle goes behind the main bulkhead and reinforces it’s formed angle.. it also sandwiches the door post at the top where it is “joggled”... the smaller pieces are huck pinned spacer plates for the lower strut attach point... We drilled off the huck pins and will be replacing those with AN bolts.



Starting on removing the 182 bulkhead.. first we need to run all the wiring, fuel line, brake lines and control cables out of the area..



I got the owner drilling out rivets, meanwhile I hung the 175 parts in the paint booth after etching and alodine to spray them with a coat of primer.. Just doing a Rust-Oleum rattle can job... figured anything is better than nothing...



And a couple coats later they are done.. should be good and dry by the time we get the other one out...



Took most of the day but have all the wiring from the rear of the airplane out of the way.. Aileron cables are removed and stuffed into the forward hole. Rudder cables and elevator cables are removed from the front and stuck behind the bulkhead to be removed... and the sections of brake and fuel lines out..



Next step is removing the short “ribs” from between the main bulkheads and the elevator bell crank pivot angles..

Brian


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Day 6... but only day 3 on the fuselage repair...



All of the necessary bulkheads wires and cables are out...



I cannot stress the need for a 90 degree air drill for removing rivets in this area... best tool for the $$ here..



And the old one is out...



Better picture of the cracks.. front pilot side



Back pilot side, you can see how much the panel buckled here, it should be flat against the angle..



Co pilot side back... smaller crack, buckled panel..



After studying the bulkhead we are sure of the reason why it cracked is due to a design error on Cessna... And that is the bulkheads in this area are a carry over from 170 and 180’s... there are several bolt holes where the main gear attach castings would have been installed... When Cessna designed the 182 they just left the castings out, those castings are an important part of the structure in this area. But, mainly they left out the bolts at the end of the heavy angle that rivets to the floor.



These two holes here have nothing in them and therefore letting the bulkhead flex behind the angle..



Here is a look at the two bulkheads for comparison... as you can see, they are identical with the exception or a few rivets holes for brackets that the 175 did not have, I will be adding those..



The 175 also does not have anything installed at the end of the angle... But interestingly enough to see the same holes for tail wheel gear on an airplane that was designed from the first as a tri gear..



And here is my Fix... the end bolt is a AN6-7 and the inner bolt is a AN5-6... just installing these bolts in the angle and I could feel an immediate difference in the rigidity of that corner..



Getting ready to install the parts so figured out the size AN4 bolts for the strut attach plates..



Cleaned out all the metal shavings dirt and oil. Those angled pieces that are attached to the belly stringers were not in the 175. So I will have to drill the bulkhead to attach those..



And a look up into the door post..



First step in reassembly, set the rear angle reinforcement pieces in place..



These reinforcement pieces go behind the door posts...



And now the fun part.. I gave my daughter my phone so she can take pictures... that’s me in the Grey sweatshirt and the owner in black getting the replacement set into place..



Myself waving at the kid..

And just found out TapaTalk has a cap on how many uploads I can do per month... stay tuned, there are a few more from today..

Brian


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Trying this through Safari on my phone..



For the most part it slid in pretty easy... had the corners catch on the floorboards but all it took was some prying and pushing to get it there..



My dad and I working the corners into place..



Lots of clecos holding the top in place..



Got it in its spot...



Airplane owner Riedar taking a quick breather..



My kids pup giving us encouragement..



And got the strut attach hardware bolted in... surprisingly all of the rivet and bolt holes line up perfectly...

More tomorrow.. And will try and get the pictures rotated correctly once I’m on a PC.

Brian

Thanks for posting--very interesting!

Epic documentation of a difficult but essential repair. Hopefully, Zane can archive this thread.

MTV

What surprises me is how well the rivet holes line up. Thanks for that comment. I’ve read many instances of using salvage parts with no mention, causing me to assume it works out, but always leaving a question. I figured upsized rivets would always be required and a reaming of the holes to match them would be necessary.

Lets of education to be had in this thread. Thanks for taking the time to post this!

Gotta say, it makes me like steel tubes more and more.....

Brian, thanks for posting both the pics & the commentary!
I am impressed that not only you are replacing the damaged components,
but (in the case of the missing bolts & casting) are analyzing why the part failed,
and addressing that problem to prevent future failures.

Pinecone wrote:What surprises me is how well the rivet holes line up. Thanks for that comment. I’ve read many instances of using salvage parts with no mention, causing me to assume it works out, but always leaving a question. I figured upsized rivets would always be required and a reaming of the holes to match them would be necessary.

Same here.. That is not always the case.. For instance, we set the belly skin off the 175 over the hole and the front rivet line does no line up at all.. Going to make a new skin anyways so no big deal but it shows that this lining up is a rare occurrence..

hotrod180 wrote:Brian, thanks for posting both the pics & the commentary!
I am impressed that not only you are replacing the damaged components,
but (in the case of the missing bolts & casting) are analyzing why the part failed,
and addressing that problem to prevent future failures.

I am going to order a few of each size bolt and install them on every Straight tail Cessna Tri-Gear that comes through my shop with that bulkhead in place... I am convinced that will solve the problem...

Brian