Repairing Fiberglass Wheel Pants, Part II

I stopped by the shop this morning, to see how the wheel pants were
coming along.

What a difference! All of the wowed-out holes have been backed with
aluminum that has been riveted to the old fiberglass, and then
fiberglassed and filled over and around. High stress areas have been
reinforced, and really high stress patched areas have been filled with
"JB Weld" -- a virtually indestructable epoxy.

Best of all, the old attachment system has been completely upgraded.
The stupid "dzu" connector system (that held the two clamshell halves
together)has been eliminated, in favor of self-locking screws that
won't vibrate loose. This has meant filling in all the large dzu-sized
holes and re-drilling them smaller, but I'm hopeful that the danged
things actually won't "wow" out and come disconnected due to vibration
anymore.

Also, the dumb attachment bolts (that threaded into the struts
themselves) have been eliminated. Instead, my A&P is tapping bolts
into the *struts*, so that they stick out through the holes in the
pants. This allows the use of self-locking nuts and cotter pins -- a
much more secure attachment method -- and should eliminate the problem
of those bolts vibrating loose (we've actually lost two of them in the
last several years!)every few flights.

As usual, I'm impressed with what he's doing. Best of all, because
he's only going to have to paint one color (he thought he was going to
have to paint all four colors, at first), the cost is going to come in
way under estimate.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"