Belly metal panels, rear fuselage large inspection cover and heat flapper boxes June 2020 through July 2020:
The sheet metal screws to hold the panels on the bottom of the Pacer from the firewall to the landing rear have become increasingly larger over time. Also, the paint was peeling off in many places.
It was time to take them off, paint them and install nut plates to replace the sheet metal screws with machine screws.
The Pacer has a large inspection hole in the rear bottom of the fuselage. Since I was stripping paint and painting anyway, I decided to take care of that panel as well. Since I had access to the bottom of the fuselage, I also inspected the heat flapper boxes for the front and rear passenger compartment and found that the flap for the rear heat did not open all the way. I took both boxes off the airplane, fixed everything, painted them and reinstalled. Then it was time to paint the panels and install them back on the Pacer.
I used high temperature RTV to seal all joints to prevent oil, gasoline, etc. from entering the inside of the Pacer's belly.
