Best way to repair landing gear fairings

[bradp]

Hi all,

 

My main landing gear fairings have become pretty beat up at the corners (probably from years of stones getting kicked up at them).    I can start to see areas of "daylight" at the corners.  Structurally, going to fall off any time soon, but cosmetically doesn't look so great.  

 

I am wondering what the best way to repair them is?  I'm thinking 1) body filler with some sort of a backing plus refinish 2) remove - patch with fiberglass / epoxy and refinish 3) remove, make a mold, learn to work with composites and manufacture replacement fairings, refinish.  

 

I believe these fairings are fastened by cherry rivets, which I don't have a problem with except for question of access to clean up leftover bits that I wouldn't want to leave in the wing for years and years.   I am not near the plane, but I think there's an inspection panel near there.  

 

For reference re: which faring , I attached a picture from the parts catalog.

 

Thanks for your opinion,

 

Brad 

[DonMuncy]

My hangar elf has a mold for each of the fairings, and he says turning out a fiberglass one is no big deal.

[Guest]

My hangar elf has a mold for each of the fairings, and he says turning out a fiberglass one is no big deal.

Will your hangar elf build them for other to enjoy?

Clarence

[DonMuncy]

Clarence,

I sent a PM.

[jetdriven]

they are held on with avdel avex rivets, basically a refined pop rivet. If you put them in with Cherry Max you'll wreck everything getting them off.

[bradp]

Jetdriven I should keep you on speed dial. Thanks again for the good advice.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[DonMuncy]

Clarence asked if my hangar elf fairings were available to others. I hesitated in answering, as I did not want to get myself in the position of making this a business. If I tried to sell these at a profit, figuring in my elf's labor, they might cost as much as Mooney would charge. But as long as I don't get inundated, he could turn out a few to those needing one. The cost of the materials to make them are pretty low, and shipping would probably not be too bad. I don't charge my Mooney friends for my elf's labor. If you need one, PM me.

[Piloto]

I had the same problem with the plastic fairings.

Here is my finding:

The fairings are damage by the chafing of the inner doors with the fairings during flight (landing gear retracted). This is prone to happens when the gear donuts are worn out and compressed and the lip of the door rubs on the fairing. You can only see this with the gear retracted. The fairing material is too thin to withstand the chafing.

My solution:

I removed the fairings and repaired them with fiberglass fabric and resin and reinforced the chafing area. Sanded to shape and painted to look like new. Installed back the fairings with standard aluminum pop rivets.

On the gear I added a 1/8" thick round spacer/washer on top of the donuts stack to eliminate the slack. The slack happens after a few landings with new donuts. This helps on reducing the inner door chafing. Another option is to adjust the inner door to keep it from chafing. The chafing has to be check to prevent damage to the new fairing.

José