Advice on fitting lower gear fairing

[Dgamble]

I'm fitting a Team Rocket lower gear fairing to a Van's wheel fairing and could use some tips on getting a better fit:



Some of the gaps might be reduced when I trim the fairing down a bit, but it looks like there will be still be some gaps to deal with.

[Bob Brown]

is obtained by first fitting the intersection fairings to the wheel pant. You may have to do some layups to improve the fit of the intersection fairing before you move on. Then try sliding the gear leg fairing up or down to fit the intersection fairing better. Even after you've made your best fit, to get it perfect usually requires you to do some glass layups from the intersection fairing to the gear leg fairing. This area moves a bit, so you'll probably also have to trim up your layups once you're done. Some builders use some chafe tape on the inside of the intersection fairing once it's trimmed up, just to protect the paint on the gear leg fairing a little. Make sure you've got the intersection fairing placed onto the wheel pant with clecos before you go to fitting the gear leg fairing to the intersection fairing. If you haven't had them off and on a hundred times you're better at this than I was...

[fstringham7a]

Dave

I am where your at also. The only difference is ..I am going to make my own fairing. I have had some previous experience with fiberglass and feel I can get a custom job that will fit and look as good or better than the other brands.

With that said there are a number of things you can do to get a good fit. But first I would need to know what system you will use to take the fairings on and off. I would suppose that you are going to use the aft trailing edge unfiberglassed and thus be able to just pull the fairing forward to release it's position. If that is the case you will need to rework the trailing edge of the fairing to close the gap you have. Major fiberglass surgery to the extreme or heat gun as a minimum. You will also be adding screws in some strategic locations to hold the fairing to the wheel pant. this would also help close the gap. With this all said if I were there at your side my suggestions might change ......especially being able to see all sides of the problem. At any rate fiberglass like the metal parts of the plane takes patiences, a dose of ingenuity, and an expectation of doing the best you can to get the job done.

My fairings will have the trailing edge closed, will be fiberglassed to the wheel pant, and cut along the same line as the forward and aft sections of the wheel pant. That way when the forward section of the pant is taken off the forward section of the faring will just come along, attached....ditto for the aft. I would do the same with your fairing if it were me.... but ..... as always your milage may vary.

Frank @ sgu and slc.....RV7A

[rv6rick]

Give me a buzz at the house and we'll get you squared away.

[Dgamble]

Originally Posted by rv6rick

Give me a buzz at the house and we'll get you squared away.

Thanks, Rick. I'll give ya a holler sometime over the weekend.

[Bob Axsom]

Cut the fairings in line with the wheel fairing split and fiberglass the forward and aft parts of the intersection faiting directly to the forward and aft parts of the wheel fairing. This eliminates any attachment hardware; and the gap; and the number of "plastic" pieces; and the operational maintenance complexity; and the operational maintenance time; and the assembly reliability.

I made my own using the modeling clay mold and direct lay-up method. I intended to screw them to the wheel fairings but after the initial single layer cured it became obvious that the separate cuff was a bad design. I marked and cut them and did the rest of the buildup directly on the wheel fairing halfs. 280 hours of operation shows it was the way to go. No problems. Just airing the tires will be a greater pain with the multipiece design.

Bob Axsom