Matching the pant halves?

[Phil]

It seems like I kicked up all kinds of interest in wheel pants. Theme of the week!!!

One of the first steps the plans have you do is match the front and back halves of the wheel pants. The step involves sanding down the nose half to match the flange molded into the back half.

That seems like a bit of an inexact science. There's really no way to know if you're bringing the nose back squarely. Sure you could eventually achieve a perfect fit, but how do you REALLY know it's square to the nose cone?

I'm thinking I shouldn't even try to sand them back. I'm tempted to put the two halves together, fill the gap with balloons, and then break the two halves apart. A strip of tape can be used as a mold release so I should end up with wheel pants that are matched perfectly.

I'm willing to give it a shot and report the results back.

However, I have one question for some of the experienced RV guys.

1) Am I creating an alignment issue? It's possible that the nose cone could be out of alignment with the rest of the pant - but following the plans seems to create the same opportunity for misalignment.

Thoughts?
Phil

 

[erich weaver]

I remember someone posting a simple and fool proof method of matching up the front and back portions of the wheel pants a few years back, complete with photos. Perhaps someone can resurrect that from the archives?

Erich

 

[erich weaver]

Found it

http://www.vansairforce.com/community/showthread.php?t=16999&page=2

Should have known it was from DanH

Looks like you were thinking along the same lines

Erich

 

[Phil]

Awesome...... We're thinking about the same thing.

Thanks for validating my thoughts.

Phil