January 17, 2010 -  Wheel Pants

My wheel pants were covered in mud from the Massey fly-in.  I needed to finish filling in the epoxy work as well, so I took them off the airplane and drove them home.

Here they are in my basement. 

   
An hour later, all nice and clean.  I washed them in the bathtub.  It took me longer to clean the bath tub afterwords than it did to wash the wheel  pants themselves!
   
 The next task is smooth the area between the intersection fairing and the wheel pant. 
   
After sanding.
   
I mixed up some epoxy and micro balloons. 
   

I applied the micro fill and let sit for 24 hours. 

   

I spent most of the week's evenings -- an hour or two each time -- sanding, then applying Rage Gold filler, sanding, apply Rage Gold, ...  I went through three iterations.  Then I sprayed a coat of Primer/Filler on. 

The primer coat dries with a gloss finish.  It turns dull upon sanding.  I'm going to leave the gloss primer on for awhile because I want to fly with the wheel pants and fairings.  I'll put the finish coat on in a few months when it is warmer. 

   

I had thought I'd done a good job finishing the surface and was shocked by how many pin holes and imperfections the primer coat revealed.  In the spring, I'll have to spend another week on them before applying the finish coat.  I can't believe how much time I've had to spend on the wheel pants and fairings:  fitting, trimming, glassing, filling, sanding, painting.  It's at least 50 hours, probably closer to 100. 

   
 
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