The steering cables were attached to the nose wheel assembly with the supplied cable crimps. I added a drop of thin CA glue to the cables at the crimp to insure a good grip. Be sure not to glue the cable to the ball link as the cable will need to swivel up and down on the link once finished.

       The steering cables must flex correctly when the retract mechanism folds up as seen below. If the cables get caught on the strut they may cause the gear to hang and not fully deploy or retract.

       The next step was to cut in the strut door on the nose wheel landing gear door.

       I cut a 35 mm x 45 mm square out of the front (non-hinged side) of the gear door as seen below.

       To accommodate the hinges for the strut door I added a 45 mm x 10 mm 1/8” plywood piece to the door as seen below.

       To strengthen the webbing of the gear door I added some 1/8” Lite-ply to fill in the gap.

       At this point I cut out the door stop at the front of the fuse to clear my strut door setup.

       The hinge points were temporarily fitted to test the door’s position.

       A balsa wood block 5/16” x 3/8” x 45 mm long was glued a 1/16” below the sheeting edge of the fuse as seen below. This will hold one of the strut gear doors in place.

       The stationary strut door was cut out of 1/16” birch plywood, 46 mm long x 18 mm wide.

       I drilled some 5/64” screw holes in the door 10 mm in from each side of the door and 4 mm in from the edge.

       I temporarily attached the door to the fuse with #2 x 3/8 sheet metal screws as seen below.

       The next step was to attach the Dubro nylon hinges (Cat #116) to the gear doors.

       I drilled a couple of 1.15 mm (.045”) holes in both hinges as seen below. Notice the two new holes under the Du-Bro stamp.

       The plywood piece on the gear door was pre-drilled for a set of #0 x 1/4” screws with a .035” drill bit. The hinges were screwed in and the excess hinge flange was cut off as seen below.

       The strut gear door was cut out of 1/16” plywood at 45 mm x 17 mm.

       2-56 screws and nuts were used to attach the door to the hinges. I matched the layout on the stationary door as seen below.

       To close the door automatically I used the same spring method used on the main gear doors.

       A small plywood stop was glued to the main door to stop the strut door from folding in. You will notice the stop to the left of the spring.

       I stripped off the hinges and hardware to paint the inside of the gear doors to match the main doors. The same flat black Testors paint was used as before (Cat #1249).

       The doors were now covered with the same flat dove gray Monokote as used on the fuse before.

       The spring hinge assembly was reinstalled on the door and the 2-56 screws were trimmed down as seen below.

       The hinge points were glued in place with 5 minute epoxy. The blue tape helped hold the door centered into the opening while the epoxy was curing.

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