Tip: Wheel pants, alignment and mounting

[Mike S]

Here is how I did the wheel pants on my RV 10.

Some of this is my ideas, most is borrowed from master RV builder Steve Barnard. The fixture is something he did, and passed on to me.

This fixture is used to hold the wheel pant in correct alignment, after the aircraft is jacked up, and in level flight attitude. You can see the #30 drills used to pin the fiberglass to the wooden fixture. What is not visible is the fuse center line on the floor, and the offset lines that are used to locate the wheel pant center lines.

A single #30 hole is drilled in the front, and rear center of the pant.



The green masking tape is holding the spacer block to the top of the tire, to give clearance. The fixture is holding the wheel pant level, and also giving the correct spacing for the mount that will be drilled soon.



One more shot, front half of the pant now in place on fixture. Notice leveling feet on the fixture-----all needs to be level. Seeing as it requires putting things in place a few times to get it all correct, we marked the floor so the fixture could be relocated correctly.





Now that the wheel pant is correctly located, you need to drill the hole for the mounting screw in the pant. The hole is already drilled in the mounting tab, and a nut plate is installed. To make locating the hole easier, I rigged up a light to go inside the pant.



Here is the light located at 90* to the nutplate, a long drill is used as a pointer to position the light.



Pretty easy to find the hole



After getting all of the mounting holes correctly located and drilled, I added a pattern of holes around the mounting hole, these additional holes are used to insert the "liquid shim" to lock in the correct spacing for the pant. The black boxes give an idea where the shim needs to be.

[Mike S]

Next step is to mix up epoxy with some flox, and cabosil. The flox gives it strength, and the cabosil keeps it thrixopoctic ---fancy word I cant spell, means the goo will not drip off while it is curing.



The mixture is sucked up into a syringe, and then is shot into the gap between the wheel pant, and the mounting tab. I used packing tape to protect the alum, and sanded the inside of the pant for better adhesion.



After things set up, this is what you have when you remove the wheel pant.





Next, grind/sand down the excess epoxy/flox/cabosil shim, and then counter sink for a screw.



Hope this helps someone.

[Master Designs]

Wow, super helpful since I took my new wheel pants out of the box today and stared at them. Are those pants James or Vans? Also, are those the stainless steel wheel pant brackets from Fairings-etc?

[Mike S]

All stock Vans parts.

[Wayne Gillispie]

getting ready to pull cabin top off to deburr, add top antenna, rg-400, f/g junction boxes, prime/topcoat inside, then final install next week with led strip lights for baggage/cabin/panel.

Thank you for the excellent diagram.

This information will come in handy in a few weeks!

[Gary Baker]

for taking the time to put this out here. I'll be using your tips in the next few months on my -6.

[ArVeeNiner]

Thanks. I'll be doing this in a couple three weeks.

[Pat Stewart]

Great post Mike.

Pat

[pierre smith]

....on this subject, Mike....thanks and I know you'll be helping a bunch of guys with their installations on any Van's model.

Best,

[rleffler]

Mike,

WOuld you mind posting the dimensions of your jig, so that others can more quickly duplicate it?

thanks,

bob