Mar 08, 2024     Sanded clearance blisters - (0.6 hour)       Category: Wheel Pants

Sanded the clearance blisters and applied a coat of primer. They look 100% better. I think my painter will be pleased.

  Mar 08, 2024     Fiberglass weave mitigation - (0.4 hour)       Category: Wheel Pants

Since I have an extra day before I have to take the fiberglass parts to the paint shop, I decided to fill a bit of the weave that's showing on the brake-bleeder port "bump" on the wheel pants. I applied a brushed-on layer of UV Smooth Prime, which I'll sand in the morning. This should give my painter a little bit of a head-start on the preparation of the surface.

  Mar 03, 2024     Rhino liner; R pant attachment/assessment; Attachment nutplates - (5.3 hours)       Category: Wheel Pants

1. I had some Rhino Liner left over from coating my cowlings, so I decided to apply a coat of it to the insides of my wheelpants. This stuff sets up quickly, so I had to mix up two batches to get the job done.
2. Installed the R wheelpant for the first time with all its final hardware, just to check its fit. Like the L one, there is a slight spread of the seam at the top of each fairing where it meets the gear leg. After looking at both sides, I decided to leave them "as is" for now. I'll ask my painter and some other friends about them, and see what they think.
3. Installed all the remaining wheelpant attachment nutplates on both landing gear. I think the "outboard screws vs. rivets" idea was just perfect, and will make servicing the brakes and tires a lot easier.

  Mar 02, 2024     Wheelpant filler, seams, joggles, nutplates, and profiling. - (4.3 hours)       Category: Wheel Pants

1. Began working on fixing the seams at the top of the gear leg fairings, which have opened up slightly since they were installed. I will probably also tighten up the fore & aft gaps a bit while I'm at it.
2. The gear leg fairings had slight misalignments when they were installed on the airplane, so I decided to add some small alignment joggles, like I did on the wheel pants. I cut small strips of 0.032" aluminum and flush-riveted them to the edge of the fairing. They work perfectly.
3. Upsized the outboard axle-support holes in each faring to #8, and did the same on the axle supports themselves.
4. Drilled the R inboard wheel pant bracket for #8 nutplates.
5. Re-profiled the L wheelpant to get rid of a slight ridge on the inboard top side.
6. Filled several divots on the trailing edge of the wheelpants.
7. Primed all the parts for a final look.

  Feb 29, 2024     Upper gear leg fairings; L wheel pant final fit check - (2.8 hours)       Category: Wheel Pants

1. Marked the attach pin for the exhaust ramp and trimmed it so it will fit inside the R upper gear leg fairing.
2. Planned the installation of the upper gear leg fairings. Attached both gear attach cover plates. Screwed the upper fairings together and taped them in position on their respective gear legs. Planned how the fairings can be most easily attached, and I decided that two carefully-placed #8 screws should hold them in position -- one going through the fuselage skin with a rivnut, and another screwed into a nutplate in the gear attach plate itself.
3. Put on the L wheelpant to check its fit and decide if there's anything else I need to do to it. I might end up adding some flox to the very top seam, where the wheelpant fairing meets the gear leg.

  Feb 24, 2024     Wheel pant sanding - (1 hour)       Category: Wheel Pants

Sanded all of the filler I applied earlier in the week. (Once I was done, I actually could not find any areas where I wanted to apply filler--so perhaps the wheel pants are close to finished!)

  Feb 23, 2024     Wheel pant pinhole filler - (0.4 hour)       Category: Wheel Pants

Added filler to pinholes on wheelpants and pant fairings.

  Feb 16, 2024     Wheel pant sanding, feathering, and seam shaping - (0.8 hour)       Category: Wheel Pants

1. Sanded and feathered the last sections of filler on the pant/fairing intersections.
2. Tweaked the seams and joggles in several locations between the front and aft halves of the pants.
3. Shot a coat of sanding primer on the pants. Found one section of one pant that will require some more filler.

  Feb 10, 2024     L & R Wheel pants - final details - (3.7 hours)       Category: Wheel Pants

1. Sanded the general filler areas from yesterday.
2. Spent a lot of time carefully filing the seam edges and especially the joggle areas where the front pants nests with the aft pants.
3. Attached both halves together and match-sanded the newly-filled contours of the fairings.

  Feb 09, 2024     L & R Wheel pants -- final touchups and sanding - (4.1 hours)       Category: Wheel Pants

1. Attached wheel pant halves and assessed all the small areas that needed to be addressed.
2. One of the areas that was bothering me was the aft transition of each pant fairing to the pants. I decided to see if I could simply sand the area with a coarse sandpaper block. I tried it, and it actually worked very well.
3. Coarse-sanded some more areas of the pants that still had a slight gloss.
4. Continued improving the seam line by trimming and filing several areas.
5. Mixed up some thick flox/micro and used it to beef-up the edges of the left pant in several locations that were chipped because of their thin edges -- including the main bond line on the top inside of the pant.
6. Used more of the flox to fix certain spot areas where the seam line needed filler.
7. Filled a few more locations on the inside radius of the fairing/pant intersection that had small voids due to settling.
8. Added three layers of fiberglass on the inside radius of the L forward pant, near one particular hole where the pant was thin and was getting puckered when the attach screw was tightened.

  Feb 08, 2024     Wheel pant sanding and gelcoat removal - (4.5 hours)       Category: Wheel Pants

1. Sanded and feathered last night's filler on the wheel pants and fairings.
2. Sanded off all the gelcoat on all wheel pant parts.
3. Added some final filler on one section of the R pant fairing.
4. Partially primed the other 3 parts.

  Feb 07, 2024     L & R wheel pants & fairings - (3.8 hours)       Category: Wheel Pants

1. Spent a lot of time sanding the wheel pants to improve the fit and finish.
2. Applied two layers of Gorilla tape along the front/rear wheel pant seams, and used a small file to increase the depth of the notch I began a few weeks ago. This notch will help define the seam better, and hide any waviness or mismatched edges.
3. Added more filler to certain areas of the wheel pants and fairings.

  Feb 06, 2024     L & R Wheel pants and fairings - (1.2 hours)       Category: Wheel Pants

1. Sanded previous fairing filler.
2. Added pinhole filler to certain areas of the fairings.
3. Mixed thick flox and filled the inside cavities of the pant-to-fairing intersections.

  Feb 03, 2024     L and R wheel pants and fairings - (2.3 hours)       Category: Wheel Pants

1. Sanded yesterday's microballoon/cabosil filler on the R wheel pant halves.
2. Cleaned everything and added SuperFil finish filler.
3. Lightly sanded and spot-filled the L pant halves.

  Feb 02, 2024     L and R wheel pants and fairings - (4 hours)       Category: Wheel Pants

1. Sanded and feathered all of yesterday's filler.
2. Applied a couple of coats of filler primer on the L wheel pant halves.
3. Prepped and sanded the bonding surfaces for the R wheel pant halves and fairings.
4. Bonded and clecoed the fairings to the R wheel pant halves. Drilled and clecoed an additional hole to hold the fairing tight in one location.
5. Mixed up some thick micro/cabosil and applied it along the seam line of the fairings.

  Feb 01, 2024     L and R wheel pants and fairings - (3.5 hours)       Category: Wheel Pants

Continued sanding and filling the wheel pants and fairings.

  Jan 31, 2024     L & R wheel pants and fairings - (1.3 hours)       Category: Wheel Pants

1. Sanded and applied more filler to all parts.
2. Riveted on the aluminum joggle tab on the front half of the R wheel fairing.

  Jan 29, 2024     L wheel pant sanding - (0.9 hour)       Category: Wheel Pants

1. Sanded and feathered the intersection of the clearance blister and the pant.
2. Drilled the attachment holes through the new fiberglass shims on the pant halves.

  Jan 28, 2024     L and R wheel pants and fairings - (4.6 hours)       Category: Wheel Pants

R wheel pant:

1. Upsized the four attach holes in the pant and attach bracket to #8. Noted what thickness of spacers would need to be added to the pant halves. Removed the wheel pant.
2. Did fiberglass shim layups at the attach holes as needed.
3. Added filler to the clearance blister.


L wheel pant and fairing:

1. Sanded and feathered the transitions between the fairings and the L wheel pant halves.
2. I'd been concerned about the strength of the bonded-on joggle tab on the fairing, and my concerns were justified when it popped off while being handled today. I fabricated a new one out of 0.025" aluminum, then bonded it AND riveted it in place. I used a double-flush rivet on the top-most rivet, to give it sufficient clearance from the gear leg. I'll have to do the same on the R side, too.
3. Added a bit of filler on the mating edge of the fairings, so they will be nice and square after some careful filing.
4. Cleaned, prepped and primed the forward and aft pants/fairings, just to see how things are looking. I was fairly pleased with the results. There are definitely some irregularities that will have to be addressed.

  Jan 27, 2024     L and R wheel pants and fairings - (4.3 hours)       Category: Wheel Pants

L wheel pant:

1. Sanded yesterday's fairing filler on both forward and aft pants.
2. Test-fit the L wheel pant.
3. Added SuperFil filler along the edges of the previously-applied micro. Alost filled a few of the larger pinholes and divots I could find.

R wheel pant:

1. Positioned, marked, drilled, and clecoed the fairings to the R wheel pant.
2. Marked the split line on the forward fairing,
3. Removed the forward fairing and trimmed it.
4. Replaced the forward fairing and used it to mark the split line onto the aft fairing.
5. Trimmed the aft fairing.
6. Clecoed both halves back onto the pant and made slight adjustments to the fit.
7. Marked the forward fairing for the location where I'll install a joggle tab, and where I'll apply some filler to build up the forward fairing to meet the aft one.
8. Fabricated an aluminum joggle tab. Bonded it onto the forward fairing with flox.
9. Applied SuperFil filler to build up a 1-1/2" section on the forward fairing so it meets the aft one.

  Jan 26, 2024     L wheel pants and fairings - (5.1 hours)       Category: Wheel Pants

1. Drilled out the attachment holes after laying up the shims over them yesterday.
2. Sanded the shims smooth. Reattached the pants and verified the shim thicknesses are sufficient.
3. Marked a split line on the fairing halves with a fine Sharpie. Took each side off and sanded them until the halves met along the line. This took several fittings of the pants and fairings.
4. After noting the straightness of the pant seam line (or lack thereof), I decided to create a visual seam by standing a small file on its edge and sanding a 1/16" deep slot along the leading edge of the aft pant half. I'm hoping this will suffice to make the seam look straight. If it doesn't, I'll probably just sand the aft pant along that edge.
5. Assembled the entire pant (off the airplane) and inspected it for QC issues. Sanded the tire hole so the joining edges of the front and back pant precisely meet, then rounded the edges of the hole for aesthetics.
6. Scuffed and cleaned the mating surfaces of the forward and aft fairings and the pant halves.
7. Applied resin to each surface and clecoed the fairing halves in place onto the pant halves.
8. Used the remaining resin to mix up a thick micro/cabosil mixture and apply along the edges of the fairings. I had to use quite a bit at the aft edge of the aft fairing, since the gap there was over 1/8" wide.
9. I thickened it up even more with flox and applied it to the inside intersections of the fairings and pants.
10. Added a final bit of filler to several small areas along the pant seam that have dings in them.
11. Cut a 1" x 1/2" piece of 0.025" aluminum, bent it to match the profile of the upper, forward edge of the fairing, scuffed it and the fairing, and bonded it in place. There, it will act as a joggle to keep the forward and aft fairing edges aligned.

  Jan 25, 2024     L & R wheel pant fitting; L pant fairings - (4.5 hours)       Category: Wheel Pants

1. Positioned, drilled and clecoed the final attach points on both wheel pants. The wheel pants are now in their final locations. Noted which attach holes needed to have some internal fiberglass layups added as shims.
2. Drilled and clecoed the new attach holes up to their final size to accomodate #8 screws.
3. Put the left wheel pant fairing halves in position to see if they can be used, or whether I'll have to do my own layups. It looks like I can use them, with some modifications. I also decided that I would eventually glass the fairings to the front and rear halves of the pants, then split them along a vertical seam line that matches the wheel pant seams.
4. Duct-taped the fairings in place, leaving a small gap fore and aft of the gear leg to allow for some movement.
5. Drilled and clecoed the fairings in position.
6. Noted and marked some trims of the wheel pants that needed to be made along the side of the tire opening. I also made some marks for improving the seam line later.
7. Removed the pants and fairings. Trimmed, filed, and sanded the pants and fairings as required.
8. Roughed and cleaned the inside of the pants where the fiberglass shims needed to be added. Cut some small strips of glass, and laid up the shims. Used some of the remaining resin to fill some obvious rough spots on the L pant.
9. Used a nutplate drill jig to prep the attach bar to accept the nutplates for the L pant. Countersunk all 8 holes.

  Jan 20, 2024     L and R wheel pant fitting - (2.4 hours)       Category: Wheel Pants

1. Removed peel ply from R wheel pant, filed the inside flange and the two fiberglass shims, and sanded the outside surface. Some filler will be needed on both L and R clearance blisters, but I'm going to wait until the pants are completely fitted before I start on that task--just to optimize my time.
2. Trimmed the openings in the R pant in a few areas.
3. Fitted the R pant, adjusted it to be on centerline of the wheel/tire and at the proper angle, and duct-taped it in place
4. Back-drilled the four outboard holes and clecoed the pant in place.
5. Fitted the forward half of the R pant.

  Jan 19, 2024     L and R wheel pant fitting - (4.4 hours)       Category: Wheel Pants

L wheel pant:
1. Peeled off yesterday's peel ply on the clearance blister and sanded the exterior of the blister.
2. Filed the inside lip of the clearance hole to maximize the size available for the brake housing and brake fluid bleed port.
3. Continued fitting the L pant by trimming small amounts from the sides and aft end of the tire hole.
4. Got the pant in position and checked its level and toe-in/out, just to make sure no more trimming would be needed.
5. Placed the lower gear-leg fairing pieces in place to check their fit against the gear leg and the wheel pant. I think they should be fairly usable, with some future sanding and persuading.

R wheel pant:
1. Took measurements off the L pant and transferred them to the R one.
2. Opened up the tire hole and gear leg hole in the aft pant.
3. Put the aft pant in place and marked where I needed to cut the brake clearance hole.
4. Cut the brake clearance hole and filed it smooth.
5. Checked the fit. Marked location of some fiberglass buildups that will be needed for the inboard attach brackets to sit flush.
6. Roughed the bonding areas with 60-grit sandpaper and cleaned them with isopropyl alcohol.
7. Made a template of the brake hole and cut three layers of fiberglass.
8. Mixed up some resin and made a sandwich layup. Applied it over the hole, stippled it in place and pushed it up into a blister, just like on the L pant. Put peel-ply around the edges.
9. Created two 10-layer fiberglass shims on the inside of the pant where the aft attach bracket will be riveted.

  Jan 18, 2024     L wheel pant fitting, clearance blister, and mount build-up - (3.9 hours)       Category: Wheel Pants

1. Filled the tires to 40 PSI just to make sure I'm not going to affect the fit of the pants with too-low tire pressure.
2. Cross-checked some wheel pant dimensions from my friend's RV-8, just to see if mine were going to be close. As it turns out, if I follow Van's instructions precisely, the trailing edge of mine are slightly over 2" higher at the trailing edge than his. I set mine temporarily at the factory angle and stood back to see if looks OK. It looks reasonable and should give me good ground clearance, so that's what I'm going to go with.
3. Trimmed a bit more from the aft edge of the gear leg hole for better clearance.
4. Dropped a plumbob at the tail of the airplane and also at the firewall, then stretched a piece of fine string and taped it to the floor. Put pieces of tape on the floor, fore and aft of the wheel/tire. Used a square to mark perpendicular lines down to the tape from the forward side of the tire and the aft end of the wheel pant, then manipulated the wheel pant until the measurements from aircraft centerline to my tape marks were equal. Hopefully, this will get the pant right in line with the longitudinal axis of the airplane
5. Carefully duct-taped the pant into this position.
6. Back-drilled the four attach holes through the pant attach bracket and through the pant, then clecoed it in place.
7. Took note of the slight gap between the attach bracket and the lower holes on the pant, and also took note of the interference between the brake fluid bleed port and the brake line fitting and the pant. Marked both.
8. Cut out an oval area on the inboard side of the pant so the brake components will clear.
9. Scuffed and cleaned the two areas on the pant in preparation for fiberglassing.
10. Made a paper template and cut three layers of BID fiberglass, then made a sandwich layup. Applied the layup to the teardrop opening, stippled it down on the edges, then used a gloved finger on the inside to push it out into a gentle blister shape. Applied a bit more resin to the outside perimeter, then applied peel ply to the perimeter. (I didn't apply peel ply to the blister because I didn't want to risk collapsing it.)
11. Applied four or five wetted layers of 1/2" x 2" strips of fiberglass on the inside of the pant, over top of the aft attach holes. Hopefully, this will be enough of a shim for the attach bracket, once it's sanded appropriately.

  Jan 14, 2024     L wheel pant fitting and trimming - (0.8 hour)       Category: Wheel Pants

1. Leveled the airplane, in preparation for setting the attach angle of the wheel pants. The Van's plans show the aft center-point of the pants riding pretty high--8-5/8" from the ground. I need to check some other sources to see if that's correct.
2. Spent more time trimming and fitting the L wheel pant so the tire has good clearance underneath and the attach brackets are in approximately the right place.

  Jan 13, 2024     Wheel pant fitting - (1.8 hours)       Category: Wheel Pants

1. Further trimmed the L wheel pant openings.
2. Fit L pant to the gear and made sure both pants were even with each other, fore and aft. Decided the R pant need some more trimming at the back edge of the gear and tire openings.
3. Studied the plans and instructions to make sure I understand the entire fitting process.

  Jan 12, 2024     L aft wheel pant initial trimming and fitting - (2.1 hours)       Category: Wheel Pants

1. Cut the L wheel pant spacer down to a 3/4" thickness to match the R one.
2. Using the R wheel pant as a reference, I marked and trimmed the wheel and gear leg openings in the L aft wheel pant. Filed and sanded all edges.
3. Fit the aft pant onto the gear. (As with the R one, it was an extremely tight fit.)

  Dec 31, 2023     R wheel pant fitting - (2 hours)       Category: Wheel Pants

I continued work on the R wheel pant:

1. Trimmed the wheel opening in the forward piece about 3/4" larger. Test-fit it. It's better, but it still fits weird.
2. Trimmed another 1/2" from the wheel opening. Better, but still not perfect.
3. Trimmed the gear leg hole a bit more.
4. After looking at the fit of the pant, I decided to cut about 1/4" off the height of the wooden spacer block taped to the top of the tire. This made quite a bit of difference, and I was able to get the wheel pant pieces together with a lot less struggle than before. In fact, I was able to actually line up the screw holes in the forward and aft pieces, on the airplane, for the first time. I think we're on to something.

  Dec 19, 2023     R wheel pant trimming - (0.7 hour)       Category: Wheel Pants

Continued trimming the tire opening in the right wheel pant.

  Nov 28, 2023     R wheel pant cutting & fitting to gear - (3.7 hours)       Category: Wheel Pants

Began the process of fitting the right wheel pant to the gear:

1. Studied the factory procedures for fitting the pants.
2. Duct-taped 1" spacer blocks to the tops of the tires.
3. Placed the aft section in place behind the wheel, visually aligned the centerline with the tire tread, and marked where the pant needed to be notched for the gear leg.
4. Cut out the notch for the gear leg and the bottom opening for the tire, then iteratively continued to trim these three locations about a dozen times until the pant fit in place on the attach fittings. (It still seems quite tight, so I might have to do some further trimming in some way...)
4. Began fitting the forward half of the pant. Marked it for trimming at the bottom to accommodate the tire.

  Dec 29, 2022     Spacer block - (0.3 hour)       Category: Wheel Pants

Cut two 1" blocks that will be used for spacers between the tires and the insides of the wheel pants.

  Dec 26, 2022     Wheel pant screws; Outboard attach fittings - (3.9 hours)       Category: Wheel Pants

1. Marked, drilled, and clecoed the front and rear halves of each wheel pant together,
2. Opened up the wheel openings to an approximation of their final size. (They will be opened up and trimmed more later, after they are mounted on the gear.)
3. Drill the clecoed holes up to #19 and installed the seven nutplates in the aft flanges of each wheel pant. After reading several people's complaints about the #6 screws that Vans calls for here, I decided to use bigger #8 nuplates and screws.
4. Coutersunk the holes in the forward half of each wheel pant.
5. Attached the halves of each pant with #8 screws and finish washers.
6. Located and marked the longitudinal centerline of each pant.
7. Drilled the attachment hole in each U-808 attach bracket up to its final 1/4" size. Deburred the edges of each piece.
8. Installed the brackets on each axle nut. (They will be adjusted and final-tightened later, once I re-level the airplane.)

  Dec 25, 2022     R wheel pant seam trimming and sanding - (2.4 hours)       Category: Wheel Pants

Adjusted the seam on the R wheel pant in the same way as the L one.

  Dec 24, 2022     L wheel pant seam trimming and sanding - (2.2 hours)       Category: Wheel Pants

Began working on seam-matching the front and rear halves of one of the wheel pants:

1. Duct-taped the haves together. I noted that the aft half of the wheel pant had the straightest edge, by far. I decided it was good enough to use as a reference.
2. Located the widest gap between the two, which was a small area almost exactly1/4" wide.
3. Marked a line 1/4" forward from the edge of the aft piece, all along the perimeter. Separated the two halves.
4. Dremeled very close along the line.
5. Block-sanded the edge until it met the line exactly.
6. Duct-taped the halves together again.
7. Block-sanded the side of the seam to smooth the level of the joint.

  Dec 23, 2022     Initial look at wheel pants - (0.2 hour)       Category: Wheel Pants

Began assessing the seam lines of the wheel pants. Took measurements and made a plan for straightening out the seams.