Brief Description: Fitting Wheel Pants Around Gear Leg and Wheels
As you are fitting the wheel pant to the supporting brackets, you have to make a calculated ‘guess’ where the centerline of the wheel pants is located and mark this on the top of the aft half. To determine where to cut the opening for the main gear leg, you rotate the aft half of the pants over the wheel assembly mounting brackets and align the centerline with the center of the tire tread while raising the aft tip of the pant 8 5/8” to mark cut lines for the main gear. Additionally, you have to have 1” clearance above the fully inflated tires.You have to guess the approximate size and depth of the opening of the hole for the main gear and the brake lines. The wheel pant opening for the tire has to be both widened and elongated so in the final assembly, you have approximately ½” clearance. You also have to do the same with the forward half of the wheel pant. This is a trial-and-error process of cutting-fitting, and cutting-fitting, that takes several hours to get right.