Wheel pant repair - what sort of fiberglass/filler etc?

I haven't done much fiberglass work since I was a kid, and that was all patching up rusted out holes in various cars.

I vaguely recall at least two different types of resin (epoxy and maybe a polyester or something).

Anyway, it appears that something got trapped or thrown up between my tire and top of the wheel pant on my -6. I have several small blister looking spots and a couple of small holes in the top of the pant. Each about finger tip size. Looking at the inside whatever it was had to have been in there for a few rotations, perhaps stuck to the tire, as there are wear grooves in the inside of the pant. In fact, friction heat may have bubbled up the paint. No idea what it was, the tire is fine and there is plenty of clearance between the tire and the pant.

What are my repair materials?

Thanks

Structural patching from the inside of the wheel pant: use regular fiberglass woven fabric and epoxy-based resin (i.e. West Systems epoxy).

Cosmetically filling the dents and imperfections on the outside after the interior structural repairs are done and cured: A slurry of microballoons and epoxy resin.

The polyester fiberglass resins belong on boats and cars, not airplanes... my humble opinion anyway Polyester resins and the fumes from it are unfriendly to plexiglass.

I recently did a "how to" thread on fixing a damaged wheel pant, you might want to check it out.

http://www.vansairforce.com/community/showthread.php?t=90114

Epoxy is the prefered resin system, use a woven cloth.

Flox is a structural additive that makes the resin into a paste/filler. Use it where strength is needed. Hard to sand.

Micro is a non structural additive that makes the resin into a paste/filler. Use it where strength is not critical, easy to sand.

Cab-O-Sil is a thicking agent, it does not add strength, and can be used in conjunction with flox or micro.

Thanks

Mike great write up. Thanks gents.

don't bother buying anything... Just stop by my place. Duh!!!

Neal@F14 said:

The polyester fiberglass resins belong on boats and cars, not airplanes... my humble opinion anyway Polyester resins and the fumes from it are unfriendly to plexiglass.

Click to expand...

While a true statement IIRC early wheel pants, etc. were made of polyester resin based fiberglass so the answer, in general, depends on what the original parts were made of IMHO. In any case polyester should not be used around plexiglas.