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Main gear fairing and epoxy

The instruction book describes putting a pad of epoxy with flox inside the main gear fairings where they bolt to the brackets. It looks like a tricky operation, and also it looks like the fairings would bolt on just fine without epoxy. Any thoughts about this?
 
You are going to want to follow the directions here. It really wasn’t that difficult. The buildup assures a good fit between the mating surfaces. This is important to reduce the wear on the composite parts, and keep the composite parts from distorting when fastened. Distortion will mean cracks in the composite and paint later. You will be fixing this later if you don’t do it now, and it will be much more work later.
 
Inject Flox-epoxy

Wheel fairing glass is thin and the fit to the brackets doesn’t match exactly. I added 2 layers of 9oz glass reinforcement (about 6” diameter) on the inside of the pants at the attach points. I put packing tape on the brackets and installed the pants with the mounting screws fully screwed in but not clamped tight. Injected flox-epoxy thru holes drilled around the mounting screws. Some Cab-o-sil should be in the mix so the injected mix stays put. After cure I ground off the excess around the mounting areas. Not that hard to do and the final result is a perfectly fitted “shim” and a much stronger mounting point for your wheel fairings.

Don Broussard
RV9 Rebuild in Progress
57 Pacer
 
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