Section 46B: Wheel Fairings

RV14 Build September

Wheel Fairings

You start out by trimming the fairings to the scribe line. I used a dremel cutting to get close and finished with sand paper. I eventaully learned just to used 60grit out of the gate to remove material quicker.

There is A LOT of trimming and trial fitting in this stage. You also sand the mating surfaces to try to get a smooth transition. I spent a lot of time on this and it probably helped, but when you mount the fairings they are squeezed a bit and it flexes the shape which distorts this work, so don't kill yourself on this now.

Definitely get some sanding blocks to keep your lines straight, or smooth at least.

Finished interior trim, for now. You do more after mounting onto the wheel.

Tring to get the seems to lay flat.

Using a shop light to find the drill holes in the bracket. This is not as simple as I thought it would be. Section 5 has some notes about how to use magnets and I found some luck with this technique. 

Plans then have you measure and cut the axle holes.

I used a hole saw and a dremel bit for this. Finished with sand paper.

Starting on the gear leg fairing hinges.

Checking the gear legs for twist. 1 more mine had a slight twist so i followed the plans to remove it. Now its straight, but I would find out later this would put pressure on the hinge and pin and make the install for the pin difficult.

Cleking together before drilling for rivets

The plans tell you where to place the hinges. I think I was a little aggressive on this, the hinges pull the parts together in a way that bend the fiberglass and separates the trailing edge. Ill be fixing this with FLUX most likely when the time comes.

Drill your first pilot hole.

Match drill undersize the fairing.

Clamp the other end while doing this.

Then install the hinge on the inside and final drill to #40.

Trim the fairing to the scribe line.

Primed the hinges.

Counter sink and rivet.

2 completed leg fairings, at least up to this point.

These U-00002 brackets I had a hard time getting the bolt through to I enlarged the holes with #19 bit and the bolts went in great, but it added some rotation ability to the bracket. Which way after the fact I will find out adds about .5" of movement to the rear of the wheel fairing up and down.

Anyway. I leveled the airplane and then used a level to find out where the bracket sat. You figure out how much the level needs to go up and measure that once level. Then transfer that distance to the hole pattern on the fairing.

Next you match the wheel angle so you can transfer this to the fairing as well.

Then I used a plumb bob to drop a straight rivet line on the floor and a T-square and level to transfer that line closer to the wheel.

I didn't get a photo of it. But you drill the outboard, top, forward hole and inset a cleko. Then the distance the level was off you drill the outboard, top, rear hole below the marked location in the fairing. This should set up and down rotation and you can measure and drill the bottom 2 holes and cleko. Once they are installed with clekos you measure the tip and tail to align the fairing to the flight path/ rivet line you transferred to the floor and to the level.

You use the center of the trailing edge as the measuring point.

And the tip of the nose. Then you locate and drill the inboard nut plate hole locations and this holds the longitudinal orientation. Easy to say hard to do. I found that the round ball magnets in the plans come in handy here for locating the holes.

Next you tape the bracket and I added mold release wax.

Mix up some flux and add it to the inside of the wheel fairing and screw the fairing in place, but not all the way.

Allows the flux to spread out and give a larger/ smoother mating surface.

Once this is cured, you remove the fairing and install nutplates for the 2 halves of the fairing. The bottom 2  clekos I found are too low to the ground to get a screw driver under to remove the screws. I would think about moving those up a bit.

The install is complete for now. I need the lower cowling to do the rest of the fairings.

I did notice after that the fairings had some rotation issues of about a half inch do to the brackets I drilled. So I ordered now brackets and will try this all again.

Section 46B: Wheel Fairings 22 Hours