[s10sakota]

Hi everyone,

I've searched the forums and it looks like there are no posts dealing with making wheel pant fairings!

So, I would like to ask a question. I am laying up fiberglass and clay and making fairings from my gear legs to wheelpants.

I know how to do this but I'm just wondering how I get the last layer smooth? Should I use peel-ply on it? Will the peel-ply form around the small sharp curves of this type of small fairing?

Without some way to make the outer layer smooth, mine seems to be very rough with high and low spots and 'blobs' of resin.

Thanks a bunch!

 

[RV8RIVETER]

See Dan's beautiful work here.

http://www.vansairforce.com/community/showthread.php?t=16412&page=2

 

[SHORTRV7]

Mico Balloons

The peel ply will not go around complex curves, the only way I see to smooth out is to mix up micro balloons then just take you time sanding them.
Don

 

[RV8RIVETER]

Sorry misunderstood the first post. No expert here, but what I know;

Peel-ply will not give you a smooth surface, it is a prep for further layers, micro, ect.

I have found that by using small strips of peel-ply I can get it work around curves OK.

When using AeroPoxy Light filler, you can lightly wet a finger/tool and get it to smooth out pretty nicely, cuts sanding time. The same method as used for silicone caulk.

 

[Finley Atherton]

I would suggest peel ply would be difficult to apply and would not give you the desired result in this application.
I finished my intersection fairings with dry micro as per my post #7 http://www.vansairforce.com/community/showthread.php?t=16412
To ensure you get a good bond between the glass and the dry micro firstly sand the glass throughly with coarse sandpaper and then apply a thin layer of epoxy before applying the dry micro.

Fin
9A

 

[Bob Axsom]

I used the clay mold process - no peel ply

After three layers of fiberglass I added microballoon/epoxy, sanded and sealed with a thinned coat of epoxy and sanded. Perfectly smooth and it is such a small job the sanding didn't take long.

Bob Axsom

 

[mike newall]

I guess one solution is this

http://www.fairings-etc.com/

Then have a look here

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/rvsqn/photos/album/1843892863/pic/list

Then return to the first post and contact that fine fellow....

 

[Bill Wightman]

Layup over clay

We did the lower fairings the usual way, which is to lay up over hand scraped clay. The lower gear leg fairing was first wrapped with about .050" of duct tape so we'd have a gap between the wheel pant fairing and the leg. The clay was simply hand formed / scraped until we liked the shape. The tricky part, for me, was determining how the finished fairing would separate for wheel pant removal.

A few pics:

A little scrap aluminum hot glued in place to fill the gap

Using a panel cutout as a scraping tool

Oh yeah, this will be fast!

All laid up with 4 plies of 4oz e-glass

Fairing in the seams with micro

They're not done yet, but hopefully this conveys the general idea. These fairings split with the fore & aft wheel pant sections, so there's a seam on the top of the fairing to accomplish that. It will be secured with #6 screws.

Have fun...