Brief Description: Fiberglassed the light mounts to the wing tips
Today I measured and 'glued' (fiberglassed) the light mounts that I bought from Lotek. Picture 1 shows the wing tip with a hole cut in it where the mount is to be glued. Picture 2 shows the front of one and the back of the other glued in place. The light mount from Lotek has about a 1/4" flat spot all the way around the mount, which is good and flat. I used this flat spot to glue to the front of the wing tip. From the back, I put 2" strips of fiberglass mesh all the way around the mount, which should make this plenty strong. Picture three shows a closer look at the fiberglass I put around the mount. Ugly, but effective.
The only concern I have; is the expansion coefficient the same for the fiberglass wing tip as it is for the plastic light mount, or is the mount going to pop off after the first cold snap?
The lights that I bought from Skybright have long, #4-40 machine screws that are used to secure the lens to the light frame; the frame has a 'pem' nut moulded in the plastic. Since these machine screws extend into the mount, I drilled out the 'pem' nut and installed #4-40 "T" nuts in the inside of the light mount. This way I can secure the light to the mount using these 2 long machine screws going right through the 'pem' nuts. I'll also seal up the connection between the light frame and the light mount with RTV like the Skybright instructions say. I also covered the "T" nuts with fiberglass to make sure they don't move.
