Tipsy Nipper Owner's Group - Forum

Hi Glen,
I have just been reviewing your postings and photos, sorry I haven't responded to the eye bolt query. Aircraft Spruce sell these:
http://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/h ... ebolts.php
Which are not exactly what you are looking for but may be of use. Failing that it's a case of machining them up I am afraid, although NK&C may still have some.
I was just studying your engine.......which one is it please? It has an oil filter mount and some other distinctive changes to the VW.
Neil

Hi Neil,
Have seen the S&S eye bolts but....... i would (at all costs) try and source the correct item.
I have been trying to fax NK&C icw Nipper eye bolts but not seem to be connecting to their fax. Might have to resort to snail mail I'm assuming NK&C are not emailable!
The casing you see is called a Universal case AS21, can be used as a replacement for any of VW 's cars ie Beetle, 1600 bus, Variant, Carman Ghia engine casings. It has a spin on oil filter, hydraulic cam followers and various extra moulds on the exterior which might be handy to mount things solidly. One down side is the oil filter which is in the front and is virtually impossible to cowl nicely......but i was Drooling over the stuff at EMPI and they have an "adapter" to replace the filter at that point and you have the choice to route the oil to a stand alone filter.
http://www.empius.com/
Was admiring your cool four point harness, any idea where i can start looking for one.

Leaving at sparrows tomorow morning, 09h00 appointment with my welder......i cannot wait
Regards
Glen

Hi Glen,
NK&Cs are going through some changes......I will make a call and let you know. If Alan Ayles is still at the helm a fax machine is about as high tech' as it gets!
I can't help with a supplier for the harness I am afraid, it was the one fitted to the a/c when I got it. I do have a three point same make harness I don't need that could be adapted I think. I will take a photo and email it to you.
I have not heard of the engine block before. My GPAS engine is using a Revmaster oil pump and filter set-up....but because I am using the GPAS force one hub I need to extend the cowlings fwd to put it all in proportion, and house the oil filter.
I think the steel lined alloy barrels are the way ahead, 10lbs lighter!
What are you doing for carburation?
Are you going inverted?
Neil

gLEN,
THE EYE BOLTS YOU RQUIRE ARE NOT AVAILABLE ANY MORE AND WHen I made enquireies with NK&C
Alan said he could get some made but they would cost £28 each! So I lathed up some myself from 4130 steel
rod and cut the theads . I ran them by my inspector and he was happy with them. Stictly speaking , the threads should be
rolled but this is very dificult to get done. cut threads are ok as long as the eye bolts are used in a relatively low
stress area like the ailerons and elevator. They would be OK used on the rudder as they are welded into the
rudder tube anyway.
It is not rocket science to lathe up the eye bolts but the one very important bit to get right is to put a very fine radius
at the shoulder where the shaft meets the body of the eye part. It is important to get this bit right as a sharp "shaft to
body" junction will provide a possible fracture point. This is especially important on the rudder eye bolts.
Hope this is of use to you.
All the best,
Pat, ASXI

Hi All,
Quick update, Fuse has been welding including the Mk3 engine mounts, seat mod and the ugly repaired tubes that i removed. I had made small gussets for each corner behind the cockpit and these are attachment points for the cross bracing wires. These were welded in at the same time. Today i rushed the fuse off to the sandblasters and using very fine sand and keeping a fair distance between the nossle and the frame, we have a very clean fuse.
Back to the workshop, i sprayed on two coats of etch primer, tomorrow, weather pending.....i will apply 2pack white.

Hi Neil,
Thanks for the offer to phone NK&C, but Pat has anwsered that one
The carb i intend to use is a small double side draft solex, simple and reliable.
I will not be doing any inverted work, a roll, loop and a stall turn is the max i will do with this 50 year airframe. I have a four point harness but without the wide section in front which i think is important........incase one ends up doing a Carrier type landing.

Hi Pat,
Thanks for the info, i curtainly will use your idea if push comes to shove. I will have to start searching for a small lenght of rod

Hello Glen,
Just thought I would congratulate you on the progress so far. Keep the faith it will be worth it!
Regarding carburation I have a Stromberg CD150 on mine, and it has been sweet. They are still obtainable, overhaulable and cheap.
I have also been told that they provide the best solution to the uninjected VeeDub. The needling needs to be right and once it is, you are in business.
I have details of the needle profile if that is the way you decide to go.
Best wishes from the chilly North to your warmer climes,

Cheers,

Paul.
G-NIPR.

Hi Glen,

It is looking fantastic, well done.

NK&C are still in business, the elevator bolts are just a Pat says, very expensive and straightforward to make, the radius vitally important.

They have just had a batch of u/c rubbers made....may be worth getting while available?

Neil

Hi Paul,
Thanks for the kind words, appreciated !
If i end up going the CD150 route, i will certainly knock on your door for help.
Hi Neil,
Thanks for the heads up on the rubbers, will certainly entertain getting a spare set .

Progress to date......SLOW because my leave ended, so it's back to the salt mines
The fuse has been spray painted with 2 pack white and looks great. I collected the firewall today after the last piece was spot welded into place and now the preparations begin to cast a new cowling.
I have made a new hoop, the first one behind the canopy, my goodness..... that was an interesting exersize . I intent to temp fit the fuse to the wing to check how the canopy mates with the new hoop.

Glen,

The firewall looks good but don't you need a 10deg change in angle at the top for the tank to slide under? Regarding u/c rubbers, I have seen a modification listed to extend the width of the bobbins about 20mm and use bungees. It has been done before and drawing or dimensions exist but I don't have them. Details from LAA or NK&C Ltd.

David G-ARBG

Hi Glen,
all the work done looks great and that type of paint looks to be good stuff.
Hope it isnt too heavy.
Regarding the stall warner, it is one of four mandatory ad's You can find them on the
LAA site but briefly they are:
1. The mandatory fitting of a stall warner (and I reccommend you do fit one as there is
very little warning of an impending stall on a Nipper.
2. The elevator push-rod should be re riveted with steel rivets as opposed to alloy
3. The other two mods concern the VW engine and I am not sure what they are as my
Nip has a jabiru engine.

Yes the glue should be put on the bare wood for best adhesion to the fabric. Do make
sure the surface is blemish free as every little nick and dent will show through. Yours looks
pretty good to me.
Zounds...looking at your project makes me regret selling my other nipper. I really would like to rebuild
another Nipper.

Best of luck. Keep up the good work.
Regards, Pat G-ASXI

Hi David,
After much head scratching etc, i came to the conclusion that i would not be able to form the 10 degree angle. So i decided to cheat.......a little . The curve at the top of the firewall now goes just under the lip of the fuel tank.
Luckly i have 2 sets of rubbers, so should be ok for a while.

Hi Pat,
Thanks for the kind words
The spray gun i use to spray things like the fuse, has but a 0.8 nossle, therefore the paint is even but thin so no much weight has been added.
Thanks for the pointer in regards to the AD's, will certainly look into them.

Efforts for this weekend... Assemble the outer pieces of the motor, mount it in position and build a rather crude cardboard box around the front end. I purchased a product called ISO FOAM which is a 2 part liquid, once added together expands 10 times the volume into a high density foam. I simply mix... pour into the hollow space around the motor and the foam expands around everthing. Will remove the boxing and using a simple bread knife, i will cut away the foam to the shape i want. This is to form the plug for the new cowling

Progress to date is as follows:
Shaped the iso foam, using a lowly bread knife, into more or less the shape that i had in mind and then block sanded the whole lot to a reasonably smooth finish.
Mixing many batches of Rhinolite and applied this over the iso foam. Rhinolite is a product used in the dry wall industry. Due to the never ending rain and cold weather, the rhinolite took for ever to dry properly but eventually i got round to sanding this to a reasonably smooth finish as well.
Running a hand over the rhinolite, i could feel imperfections, so i applied a thin layer of Polyfiller (Household wall crack filler) and carefully block sanded. I have applied to coats of PVA paint to the top section and will sand to a fine finish when completely dry.This is in preparation of the release agent.
Please keep in mind that this Nipper is a MK1 and the engine heads stick out into the breeze

Sorry for the "loud" silience but work has been keeping me very busy, we are in the middle of summer and the storms have been raging almost every day which causes faults/damage and it's my job to make sure everything runs at 110%
I'm still busy with the cowling etc, had wonderful success and dismal failure. The top cowling i cast directly over the plug but i battled to release it, even tho i had applied release agent to the plug. Now the bottom piece was done in the same fashion but come hail or high water, i could not release it from the plug. I literally broke the cast off the plug....dam!
Back to square one, i repaired the bottom plug back to it's former glory and this time i decided to take a "female" mold from the plug. I used standard chop strand cloth and GP resin and with much stickyness etc i had a fair mold. Chop strand tends to leave millions of small holes so i purchase some really nice light weight filler and filled all the holes and small imperfections in the mold.
Once i was happy with this, i sprayed 3 thickess coats of MS primer into the mold. Sanded the primer down to a smooth finish but apon closer inspection, i discovered more pin holes and some uneveness. I used a fine stopper filler to fill the holes and even out the uneveness More sanding and apply 3 coat of ms primer........more sanding after primer has cured. I decided to top the ms primer off with 3 coats of 2 pack white which gives the mold a really smooth finish.
So this week i can maybe......eventually cast the bottom cowling, thank goodness

I do not think i would last to long if i had to build a glass aeroplane, the little bit with the cowlling was enough....thanks!!!!

Made some progress this weekend, tackled the wood stringers that make up the shape behind the cockpit and the tail. A friend offered to cut and plane the stringers for which i'm very grateful, as i poccess very little in the way of wood working machinery.
Busy preparing the plywood pieces that fit on the ends of the stringers.
This coming week, my bank savings will take a serious beating as i have box load of new engine parts to pay ie new crankshaft,chomemoly pushrods, lifters,high pressure oil pump etc
Basically my engine will be completely new

Hi All,
Sorry about the deafning silence , thought i should stick my head in here and post a small update. Have been busy with the canopy frame and the swivels/hinges etc. The frame is constructed of thin walled brass tubing and is brazed together.The front swivel bar was missing when i originally purchased this Nipper and i made a aluminium bar which work ok but i decided to remade the whole thing including the hinge. This was not as easy as i thought it should be but eventually ended up with a canopy frame that lines up with the fuel tank and the first hoop behind the canopy. The frame even swings open nice and smoothly