Of all the tasks on the RV-12 so far, the gear leg fairing has been the biggest pain in the ass. The design is poor, the instructions ridiculous and inconsistent.
I followed the suggestion to transfer the center line of the hinge (the instructions were updated because the original instructions were so poor) but it only marginally worked. There are just too many points of failure where accuracy is concerned in this method.
So the hinge is installed but it's not seated as nicely as I woiuld like. As a result, it's a struggle to get the hinge pin fully inserted (I'll probably go with two hinge pins).
The locking mechanism (a single hinge eye) is also problematic.There's no way, it seems to me, that the nutplate and screw doesn't end up chafing the gear leg. I don't see how this is acceptable to Van's. Currently, the hinge pin is so tight, I may just leave it unsecured. Or not use the fairing at all. We'll see.
Van's insisted that using AN3-3.5 rivets (too short, use 3-4) would work and the fairing could take the stress of being pried open to get the squeezer in to rivet on the hinges, but I still ended up with lots of cracks in the gel coat at the top.
I hope Van's eventually reconsiders this mess.