I've been doing a lot of work on the project, but haven't had time to post anything.
I'm going to break the wheel pants and fairings into a couple of posts.
Once I had the gear and wheels installed, I decided to go ahead and do the wheel pants and fairings.
I started with the nose wheel. I don't know if there is a really great (or better) way to approach this, but this is what I did.
After doing a couple of pants I got better at it, but for the first one (the nose wheel pant in my case) I really snuck up on the fit which means it took a lot of trial and error, just making very minor trim adjustments as I went.
I started by opening up the large wheel opening first. This was my first cut at trying to find a way to securely hold the wheel pant while I trimmed it. In my case most of the time I used my jig saw with a fine tooth blade. It makes a nice clean cut and is pretty easy to control.
Later on I came up with a more secure system using a couple of 2x4's screwed to the bench that were a tight fit inside the pant. By clamping to those I was able to get at the fairing very easily and it was held very securely.
I didn't realize at first how much I was going to have to enlarge the hole. It ends up needing quite a lot of clearance to give adequate (I'm using a finger width) gap between the wheel and the pant.
Here's the first time I could actually get the pant onto the wheel enough that it sort of fit. At this point the forward piece has not been trimmed. It need to be relieved around the gear leg before it will mate up with the aft part.
Starting to trim the forward part just to get a sense of fit and so I could drill it to the aft fairing.
Forward has been trimmed enough that I can fit the leg fairing. That's important so I can get the length down and also so the closure for the cowling can be fabricated.
Notice you can see my car jack under the nose. I used my old stands with my floor jack and a large 2x6 to jack the wheel up until there was no weight on it. That's how the plans specify to fit it. Obviously it also needs to be large enough to handle any wheel expansion from landing forces or a/c weight, but it does make it easier to work on.
Much better fit at this point.
Starting to lay out the holes for the nut plates that will attach the fairing to the wheel.
Getting ready to drill the cowl support to the engine mount. Very tight fit. I used cleo clamps to hold it in position so I could get it where I wanted it before I drilled it.
Another shot of it clamped before drilling.
The more or less completed lower cowl bracket.
Checking the leg fairing fit to the lower cowl bracket.
Lower cowl bracket in place with pins.
Trimming the gear leg fairing to fit the lower cowl bracket.
Installing the nut plates.
