Brief Description: Cutting the Intersection Fairings
The trial-and-error process of fitting the Lower Intersection Fairings to the main gear fairing and wheel pants is time consuming and a little nerve wracking. I’m glad I didn’t cut off the fairings to my “estimated cut off lines” which I guess-at three years ago. These original cut lines were an inch too short of today’s final cuts…whew! The left Lower Intersection Fairing fit well and only took five reiterations of cutting/fitting/cutting and fitting to get an acceptable layup. The right Lower Intersection Fairing was a whole different story. This fairing will require lots of tedious fiberglass buildup/sanding to fit correctly. I am totally disregarding VAN’s RV-7 plans and drawings which would require me to split each intersection fairing at the fore-and-aft split on the wheel pants, then bond the halves to the wheel pants. Instead, I am going to make an “epoxy/flox/microbead dam” around the fairings where they contact the wheel pants, then use screws and platenuts to attach the fairings onto the wheel pants. I will flare and feather the dam onto the surface of the wheel pants and build-up the fiberglass on the Intersection Fairings to match the dam. This sounds a little confusing, but I will show you how I plan to do this in future Kitlog postings.
