Southco fasteners

[Bryan Cotton]

Hey all,
Spruce only gave me 6 southcos in my hardware kit, I need 7 for the upper firewall. Also I didn't get any studs. Looking up the datasheet on spruce it looks like the hole in the middle needs to be 1/4" diameter. The half scale parts show a 5/32" hole, twice that would be 5/16". What hole size should I shoot? And how long should the studs I order be?

[fastj22]

Order 280s. And the springs, retaining rings and plastic head washers.

I wish I would have just installed nut plates instead of the southcos.

[N1906R]

Bryan

I Have the Southco studs and springs and washers if you need them. When I did my condition inspection last spring. I changed all my Southco fasteners to Skybolt. I recommend this change from plans. the mounts have the same rivets and spacing and the bases are adjustable and in my opinion are a far superior fastener. This was the best change I've made yet. I'm Based at Hinckley Il. 0c2. If you want to see them you could come to Hinckley. and if you still want southcos I should have what you need. If your interested I can find the Skybolt kit part number I ordered. I'd fly to you but I'm not out of phase one quit yet.

Jim Reichard

[Bryan Cotton]

Thanks Jim! I will keep that in mind. Sadly I am not flying at the moment, if I was it would give me a destination!

[saddler]

Jim,

Would you mind sharing what it took to convert to the skybolt fasteners? I am interested in using them instead of the southco's.

Thanks

[N1906R]

Ok, ask and you shall receive

I ordered the parts directly from Skybolt Fasteners at skybolt.com. There had been other builders who had done this mod and I got the part numbers from them on this forum. The kit number is zg28s3-set1. This kit comes with one adjustable base, one camloc style fastener, one retainer. I ordered ten kits, six for the cowl to upper firewall, one for the oil door, and two for the fuel door, leaving one spare. To install them on the upper firewall I drilled out the two small rivets that held the Southco base under the windshield strap and removed the base. The new base has the same size mounting hole and spacing so I only had to make sure the center hole was large enough for the tangs on the camloc type fastener fit into the base through the strap. The only issue here was the new bases were not counter sunk for the dimple in the strap for the flush rivets. I used my speed debur to counter sink the rivet holes in the new bases and riveted them in place. I had to open the hole in the cowl up to accept the new fastener, I believe the hole is 1/4" but I'm not sure. then the hole in the cowl gets a counter sink so the fasten sits flush. I had to fill and redrill 2 holes in the cowl as the Skybolt requires a more accurate hole alignment than the Southco did. This was not a big deal as I had not painted the cowl yet. The Skybolt fastener requires a special pliers to install the fastener through the holes in the cowl. I was lucky, my painter friend ( I do not do paint ) who did the paint on my fiberglasss parts had done the same mod on his rv8 so he had the tool. once painted and the fastener is installed the retaining ring is pressed on to the bottom of the fastener to hold it in the cowl. The final step is to set the height of the base. there are small plastic pins keeping the base released, it takes several on and off tries to get the height adjusted. once the initial height is set you remove the plastic pin to lock the base. further adjustment can be made using a pick to release the lock and a screw driver to adjust the height. I will try to post some pics when I find them.

[billmaxmcw]

Or you can get some short screws (#6 I think) which screw into the Southco bases. I've been using them for several years without problems.
Bill, Oregon

[142YX]

I will vouch for Skybolt as well. Fantastic hardware and highly recommended.

[DCASonex]

One more vote for Skybolt from here.

David A.

[fjdoug]

my Southcos work perfectly; though i did have to buy a handful of longer ones, some much longer than the plans show.