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Intersection Fairings

petehowell

petehowell

Well Known Member
Hello,

Has anyone used the vans pre-molded intersection fairings? Are the ones from Bob S just hands down better?
 
If you are talking about the emp fairing, then yes, I'm fitting mine right now. Not too bad of a job. Of course I just found out what you have to do to finish the surface. I will let you know how that goes when I do it.
 
Gear Fairings

Hi Bill,

I reworked my emp fairing a while back - I am talking about the fairings at the top of the main and nose gear.
 
wheel pant/gear leg fairings

I bought the fairings-ect ones, and they fit perfect
very smooth very high quality I don't regret buying them..
they are (expensive) but worth it..
I have looked at the vans and they look exactly
like the emp fairing, I am not impressed with the
fiberglass lots of extra work to do.. then again I
am tight with my little bit of funds.. but I have
seen some finnished and installed and they seem
to look good, depends on how much work you
want to do.. and how much money you want to
spend, just like everything else on this project.. :)

Danny..
 
Pete,

I bought the fairings from Van's and regret it.. they are not very good at all. I ended up scrapping my lower int. fairings but will work with the uppers. I would go with Fairings Etc.
 
Van's gear fairings

Pete.

I bought the Van's fairings thinking I would save some money (he said save some money in regards to building an airplane! hahahahahahaha, yuck yuck...good one)

Anyway. Van's top gear leg intersection fairings = trash! Maybe I got a set that was laid up on a bad day but these things were lousy. Maybe the mfg'er was training a newbie in the glass layup dept. Maybe they were really fairings for a tri pacer..... I dunno.

I bought the fairings etc. and was very happy with minimal trimming to get a nice fit.
 
I have the Van's ones. I am very disappointed with them. Mine were layed up so poorly that the fibers where sticking out in all directions. They were hands down the worse thing I bought for the plane.
 
Intersection fairing alignment

I have message into Bob, but thought I would try here too. I have the top faring aligned, the lower fairing covers one of my attach bracket screw locations. Any thoughts on how to expose the screw?



 
Hey Pete.

I assume that your gear leg fairings are properly aligned first. This is more difficult than it seems, because it's possible to get a 'twist' top to bottom. I aligned mine using the technique here (scroll down). Don't move or twist the gear leg fairings once aligned.

Once you align the gear leg fairing and attach the intersection fairing with fiberglass to the wheel pants, you can redrill and countersink for the attach bracket.

For me, one hole intersected the edge of the fairing a bit, but not as much as yours. Individual variation, I think.

Sorry, no pictures of my hole position.

One more thing... put several layers of reinforcement on the inside where the attach holes are in the wheel fairings. The stresses at these points are high, and when the e-glass wheel pants gets warm in the hot sun, they can deform and delaminate. I noticed that mine were deforming and had to add reinforcement after flying. I think I had a total of eight layers of BID.

Vern
 
Thanks Vern

I have only roughly located the leg fairing using Bob's top intersection fairing, but will use a technique similar to yours this weekend.

I do have reinforcement on the wheelpant screw hole locations - I agree this is a high stress area.
 
what parts do Fiarings etc replace?

Greetings to those who bought Bobs fairings. Like you I have ordered those parts from Bob at Fairings etc. The question I have now is, I am bout to order my finish kit. What part nos can I delete from the Vans kit now I have Bobs? Being in Australia, it can be a little difficult to send parts back for a refund.
Thnks, Mick in OZ.
 
Those fairings are pretty easy to make

The intersection fairings are pretty eazy to make using the modeling clay and lay up the first layer in place approach. If I were doing the job half a world away I would make my own - well I did actually and I'm right here in the USA. You get a perfect fit and decide exactly how you want to mount them.

Bob Axsom
 
mullokintyre said:
Greetings to those who bought Bobs fairings. Like you I have ordered those parts from Bob at Fairings etc. The question I have now is, I am bout to order my finish kit. What part nos can I delete from the Vans kit now I have Bobs? Being in Australia, it can be a little difficult to send parts back for a refund.
Thnks, Mick in OZ.
Click to expand...

I can't speak for sure about a -9, but on an -8, you wouldn't delete anything from the finish kit - the fairings aren't included from Van's at all - they expect you to make/provide them. Depending on your level of skill at molding they can be easy or hard. I utterly failed at trying to produce them, and rather than refine my skills, I wimped out and orderd from Bob.....

Paul
 
They are included in the 9 finish kit. I would just put a note with your order describing what you want to delete, if you can't figure out the exact part numbers. Or call them..

I wonder if we should come up with a master list of candidate items to consider deleting:
- fairings (quality problems)
- heat selector valve (aluminum may not be the best choice of materials)
- alternator, wiring harness from FWF kit (quality issues and not useful, respectively)
- static kit (if you want a fancier system)
- panel (for those planning to outsource the panel, this may save shipping hassle)
- fuel pump->carb aeroquip hose (often comes with engine)
- fuel selector (for those preferring the Andair look or feel)
- cowl (for SJ fans)

I'm sure there's many more. On the plus side, Van's will credit you if you return the stuff you don't need from your kit.
 
I don't know why you would want to pay for something thats fairly easy to make. Using modeling clay and laying up a few layers of fiber glass gives a good intersection fairing for a very few dollars. Plus you can make a good fit and ,as bob says, attach as you like. i used a couple of nut plates for the top intersection and bottom intersection fairings are part of wheel pants which works fine. fred
 
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Not so sure "easy" is the right word I would use regarding DIY intersection fairings.

I still have posttraumatic stress from laying on my back in a cold hangar in December pushing around clay with a wet spoon to create fairings for my 8. With cold water running down the inside of my arm pit ( what fun!?. boy? good times ).

Sure, the end product turned out amazing, but no way in #$@ will I be doing it myself this time around. It's off the shelf for me. I figure I'll save about 3 weeks in construction time, $100 in gas to and from my hangar, and a bottle of Aleve.
 
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