Wheel Pants

I did the final fitting and installation of the mail wheel pants.   I worked on the right pants and fitted them to the right main gear.  I needed to do some additional trimming of the cut out for the gear leg and brake line.  I was able to get them to fit properly.  I then turned my attention to the tire opening at the bottom of the pants.  As indicated in the drawings, I needed to open the outboard portion of the tire opening.  I used a Sharpie to make the bottom of the pants and then used the Dremel tool to cut out the excess materials.  I then used a sanding drum on my angle grinder to round the corners.  I also marked the leading and trailing edges of the tire openings using a detergent bucket for the shape.  I used the sanding drum to round the openings.

I used a piece of 80 grit sand paper to rough the inside of the bracket attachment holes after final drilling them.  After cutting and trimming the wheel pants I used a blow gun to blow off the dust.  I used some MEK to clean the blue Sharpie ink off of the pants.  I also cleaned the sanded areas around the bracket mounting holes.  

I used a candle to apply wax to the mounting screws.  This is to prevent the epoxy mixture from adhering to the screws.  I mixed some epoxy resin and added some glass beads.  As instructed I mixed it to the consistency of peanut butter.  I then spread the mixture around the bracket mounting holes on the inside surface of the wheel pants.  I put some blue making tape on the surface of the mounting brackets on each wheel.   Starting with the right gear and wheel I installed the pants, securing them to the brackets with #8 screws.  The went together without any problems and the pants seemed to fit properly.  The epoxy mixture was squeezed around the ends of the mounting brackets.

The parts fit together very well.  Tomorrow I will remove the pants and tape and see how the epoxy turned out.  Next I will install the nutplates to attach the for and aft halves of the pants together.