Some of you guys might know the answer to this, and since it's been quiet I'll throw this out. My flap torque tube is a piece of .75" 4130 steel tubing that extends from one end of the stub wing to the other, right through the cockpit, where I have an RV flap motor attached to it by way of a clamp-on bellcrank (see http://home.hiwaay.net/~langford/03060120.jpg ). I got smart a while back and painted it along with some other stuff, but the fit was so tight on the holes that there's no way it'll fit back in the same holes, and enlarging them would be very tough. Is there some thin chemical conversion coating that I can apply to the new bare one that bought that will keep it from rusting, while not adding a bunch to the outside diameter? I even thought about waxing it, but if it doesn't work I'll have to take the wings off to try something else, which sounds painful.
I suppose worst case is that I figure out a way to open up the holes, so I'm open to suggestions on that too. I guess I could "booger" up the tube a little with burrs on one end and run it through while somehow rotating it with a huge drill and open it up, but that doen't sound very exact, or appealing. It's such a nice fit right now... Thanks, Mark Langford, Huntsville, AL N56ML "at" hiwaay.net see KR2S project at http://home.hiwaay.net/~langford
