Fuselage rotisserie

The overall plan is to prepare my original fuselage by sandblasting and priming, then disassemble the Bowman airframe one system (seats, instrument panels, engine controls, flight controls, tail wheel, rudder pedals, etc.)  at a time. I'll evaluate each system and decide whether I have better parts in inventory or whether to reuse the system from the wrecked plane. I'll refurbish each system with paint, bearings, bushings, etc. and install it in the good fuselage.

The first step in that process is to remove whatever parts were still attached to that fuselage and get it ready to be sand blasted and painted.  I moved the fuselage from the hangar to the garage and stripped it down.

In order to make it easier to sand blast and paint I built a rotisserie out of an engine stand.  I basically extended the height of the engine stand, built a bracket to attach to the fuselage's engine mount studs and added a hinge to the top.  I then welded up a bracket for the tail that attached to the tail wheel mounts that will hold up the back of the fuselage and allow the whole thing to spin.

It all worked and the fuselage can be spun easily to any orientation.

The unmodified engine stand with the legs folded up

I cut the post so that I could splice in another piece of steel to make it taller

Steel for extension

Welded together with a pivot at the top

I also needed to fabricate a diagonal bracket that bolts to the engine mount bosses and then to the stand

Fabricated bracket for tail

Tail bracket mounted to fuselage

Aft fuselage supported by stand.