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Gluing Landing Gear Stiffeners

Graham

Active Member
I am about to attach my MLG wooden stiffeners, having aligned them iaw Vans instructions.

I propose epoxy gluing them to the legs on the aft side, then wrapping with fglass cloth.

My question is should I sand the paint (Powder coated) back to bare metal? I suspect that there should at least be some primer on the bare steel.
Anybody got any relevant experience.

Thank You
Graham Murphy, New Zealand, 21.5 years of building.........
 
Food for thought

3m 2216 and other epoxies are less brittle tnan West . Might be worth considering for the wood to gear leg bond.
 
I used tie wraps and put rubber between the tie wraps and steel leg to avoid sawing. 800 hours and going strong.

Larry
 
Anybody got any relevant experience.

Thank You
Graham Murphy, New Zealand, 21.5 years of building.........

I am a bit behind you and not yet at that stage, but have been thinking about it. I've heard of corrosion occurring on the legs under the wood, this would be hard to inspect and detect. And I'm not sure that primer is a great base for structural epoxy adhesive.

There is however a "new" way of stiffening the gear legs, which is to attach a flat aluminium (or laminated fibre) bar to each gear leg with adel clamps. There have been a couple of threads on this on VAF the past 2 or 3 months, for RV-7s. I think it's worth considering.
 
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reinforced fiberglass tape has worked for me so far. no glue. quick and easy.

edit: maybe I put some glue to hold the stiffeners in place for the taping. it was 6 yrs ago.
 
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I used a large piece of heat shrink tubing to protect the gear leg, Available at electrical supply houses.
 
I used BONDO over RustOleum paint then wrapped with 27" X 27" ~9 Oz fiberglass and West Systems epoxy. Held up well without corrosion.
 
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