Cleaning Under the Floorboards

[TxAgfisher]

I ran a search on here and it seems the consensus was taking the floor out is quite the undertaking. Anyone have any insight on how to get grime out from under the floor?

[DENNY]

If you have a full metal belly life is good if not ya got some work and stretching to do. The good news is a lot of stuff will shake itself to the low spot right below the rear stick and you can pick out all the nuts, washers, and other big stuff you dropped, vacuum the rest of the dirt out. If they did not put floor under the rear seat you can pull the under seat storage and get some access. If you do not have a 3 peace boot cowl you can remove the false cowl panels and clean around the ginger bread up front. Easy to have a few lbs of sand rocks oil and crap in the boot cowl. If you pull the trim yoke covers and put the trim all the way up a small arm with a small vacuum hose can reach some of the area in the back. A rear cleanup/inspection panel is better. One of my pet peeves is most cubs are built with no thought for maintenance down the road. IE pop rivet panels/nylock nuts with no access/huge overlaps on interior panels. DENNY

[BC12D-4-85]

I've used a leaf blower to dislodge and redistribute debris in my road vehicles and plane. Not the best as the stuff has to end up in a better place than where it was. But if there's any exit holes or door openings it gets gone. The Taylorcraft is quite open under and behind the floor so it ends up out the bungee opening or in the rear of the tail where I can either blow or vacuum it out.

Edit: on a Cub that small metal belly option near the tail can become an exit point. Same for a plate or lexan cover under the rear stick.

Gary

[Sikorsky]

I have also used a back pack leaf blower that has some snort to clean my vehicles of sand and dog hair. 30 seconds vs a half hour of vacuuming. Also, use an electric leaf blower in the house as there is no carpet and I just blow it out the door.

Thread drift but a slick, quick way for a cleaning.

Sikorsky

[stewartb]

Open the front and back stick cutouts and use a shop vac. Don’t blow the junk any further than it’s already gone. What lays in the bottom won’t hurt anything.

[hotrod180]

.... you can remove the false cowl panels and clean around the ginger bread up front. ....

Thread drift, and dumb question..... a guy I know who's building a J3 showed me what the "birdcage" is,
but he had no idea what the "gingerbread" is. Can you explain?

[spinner2]

With a Dodge style tail clean out I’ve stuck a garden hose under the floorboards and let it run for 15 minutes or so. On a nice hot summer day and everything left open it dries fairly quick.

[CharlieN]

I have washed with a garden hose many times. On fuselages that do not drain well. I rig a 5Gal pail with a small shop vac hose both in and out. Use a vac to draw from the pail and then suck from the fuselage intp the pail. Might take a few passes especially if you need to start with a soap/solvent.

[BC12D-4-85]

In addition to my DeWalt battery leaf blower I keep a small battery vacuum vac to catch dirt before it finds a home.

Gary

[DENNY]

Thread drift, and dumb question..... a guy I know who's building a J3 showed me what the "birdcage" is,
but he had no idea what the "gingerbread" is. Can you explain?

It is the 3/8 channel formers that the boot cowl/false cowl and fabric attach to. Just like all the overhead structure in a cub. The gingerbread forms a little lip that stuff can get stuck behind Bigger stuff Master cylinder caps/washers/nuts/ tend to work back but sand dirt and light stuff gets stuck behind the ginger bread any oil that gets on the firewall will work its way in making the bottom of the boot cowl nice and sticky for all the sand that gets kicked off your boots. You can try to make the pedal/seat tab holes smaller but it always seems to make it way down. When building just do a 3 part boot cowl and you can get to that stuff without a problem.
DENNY

[OLDCROWE]

and when you're done put foam tape uphill of the openings