On to the Wheel Pants

I bought a set of Sam James wheel pants since the ones I had were not very aerodynamically clean. They had a big brake bulge and the shapes were not very good. I had previously tried to fit one of them but I discovered that since my brake calipers were in front of the wheel they interfered. I pulled one wheel and brake assembly off to move the caliper only to discover that whoever drilled the axles and gear did not do a very good job. It was impossible to make the switch without elongating the holes in the gear leg, something that I was not willing to do, so I put them back together as they were. I was able to shorten a few bolts and used low height hardware and got them to marginally clear the front of the pant.

Back to the pants... I started off by calling to confirm that they were symmetrical, which I was told they were. After I got looking at them, they are close, but not really. They came with a fastener flange, which after about two hours of trying to figure out what the reference for "aligned" was, I was disappointed. Between random the cut on the front part of the pant and the asymmetry, I considered splitting them and starting over, but I don't have them time to obsess about it. I did my best with what was there and the rest will have to be cleaned up with filler. Its not that they were horrible, but I would have rather just gotten them with straight cuts and no flange.

After getting them aligned as well as I could, I hoisted the plane up in the air and got one trimmed to fit. After it was said and done, it took about 3 hours to mate the two halves together and about 30 min to get them on the plane. Soooo much easier when you can get the wheels up to shoulder height!

The plane still looks horrible, but it was the first time that I could really see how all of the new shapes work together.

Oh ya, I tried to work out the oil cooler plumbing again with the fittings I have and actually came up with a solution, but did not have enough hose to make it work, which is why I moved to the pants. Tomorrow night I should be able to get the other pant on and finish up their attachment brackets. 

Anyone local have about 3' of -8 braided hose?

Anyone want to drop by and get their hands dirty? ; )