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Upper gear leg fairing - how to get a replacement?
- Thread starter tass
- Start date
Most all -4's have hand made fairings, unless purchased from one of the folks who was making them (not a Vans part).Used to be a company called "Fairings Ect", but Im not sure if they are still doing them. Per the RV-4 plans, you form up a clay mold and hand lay the glass fairing. Yours appears to be 2 part fairing, most are single piece with split at aft end. If your not handy at doing fiberglass work, you may have to find someone who is to hand build a new one.
Looks like fairings etc still make them
Regards Peter
Vans RV Intersection Fairings
Hand Made in the USA Fiberglass Fairings for Experimental Aircraft Custom Made Aircraft Fairings by Fairings-Etc. - Handcrafted Quality for Style and Efficiency At Fairings-Etc., we pride ourselves on the craftsmanship and quality of our custom-made, hand-crafted aircraft fairings. Our fairings...
fairings-etc.com
Regards Peter
I'm definitely not good with fiberglass (or painting) to make something up on my own.
I spoke with Fairings etc. and if it's one of theirs it's been modified - mine is split into two separate pieces where theirs are not.
Anyway, next step is to send a couple more photos of the complete side and see how close they look. If they don't look the same I'd get an entire new set and replace both sides unless I can find someone to fab up only the missing piece.
Another option to avoid painting an entire set is to get carbon fiber, but I'm not sure how good it would look considering there's no other carbon fiber on the plane.
I spoke with Fairings etc. and if it's one of theirs it's been modified - mine is split into two separate pieces where theirs are not.
Anyway, next step is to send a couple more photos of the complete side and see how close they look. If they don't look the same I'd get an entire new set and replace both sides unless I can find someone to fab up only the missing piece.
Another option to avoid painting an entire set is to get carbon fiber, but I'm not sure how good it would look considering there's no other carbon fiber on the plane.
Yeah, there's 3 screws all around but only 1 on the half piece that fell off. It seems a piece with only a single split would be better from that point of view.
I used the Fairings Etc intersection fairings on my RV4. I didn’t build the airplane (or pick out the color), but I did several mods to it, including replacing the ill-fitting hand made intersection fairings. The uppers are split, attached to the airframe with 3 screws, and 2 screws attach the split line. I was able to paint them to match using a rattle can paint made by my local automotive paint shop using a flat part from the green airframe (inspection cover) in their tool that specs the paint color some how. I’d say the match is pretty close.
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The skills of modifying or cutting pre-formed fiberglass is need to fit the leg fairing. My friend gave me a set of Fairing Etc intersection fairings for the RV8 which he had unsuccessfully tried to fit to his airplane. It took some cutting, extension, grafting to make them fit to my airplane. While it sounds complicated, it's not if you are used to work with fiberglass. Ask around for anyone who knows his way around fiberglass because each of the fairing has to be custom fit to your airplane.
Nice ride
In your photo I can't see any colour difference.Redoing mine is a bit trickier since I'd need to make a template to spray the simple red/black pattern. Luckily I have half the piece (and a complete fairing on the other side) to match colours with. But, I've never done this so might need to find someone more experienced (or an auto shop) to help. Mine have a slight bump between the colours which I suspect means they were painted red then black on top.
One question about the split you mentioned - to fully remove them, do you undo the screws and kind of stretch them open? There's no real risk of breaking them doing that?
Thanks for the tip. I'm not experienced with fiberglass at all - I'm not sure this is the project I want to use to get good at it
I'll have to look for someone around me (Seattle area) who can help if they need more than a simple trim.
Not complicated but VERY time consuming. Part of the issue with the fairings etc items is that the ear leg fairings are too wide there won't be enough material to work with on the intersection fairings.
I'll be sure to measure mine out and compare sizes before ordering anything, otherwise my fallback is getting a mirror image made up from the opposite gear leg.
How different might they be? I expected they would 'sweep' the other way, so would need to be a more-or-less mirror image of the other side. I don't know if having a mirror image to copy actually makes it simpler, though.
Fairings-Etc makes the upper gear fairings in one piece. You can special order a set uncut and cut as needed to fit your application.
Steve Barnes former owner of Fairings-Etc
In general, you would think this, but welcome to the world of custom made parts. & a typical RV4 has lots of them!
And by the way, looks like a nice bird!
