Wheel Pants

 I purchased "modified Defiant wheel pants" from Aerocomposites.  I didn't get any instructions with them so pinged Scott Fish and he sent me some photos and his process of how he assembled them since there's a fair amount of cutting, glassing and fairing involved.  Russ Meyerriecks also has these same wheel pants.

Last night (8/22/2022), I bondoed some small 1" sticks inside the outer shell and then mated the inboard  shell to the outboard shell.  Then applied 1.75" BID tape to the longer edges that mated evenly, then peel plied the tapes.

Next I'll cut the opening for the wheels and mating area for the inboard component that mounts to the leg/4 axle bolts.  

Van's axle nuts for Matco axles that has the nut plate mounted in it were purchased.  An RV builder/friend (Jay Pratt) had some cad plated steel washers that were 2" OD and 1.75" ID (need to verify this measurement)  I was unable to find any other source for these.  Other builders had posted they had to machine the axle nut to capture the washer that holds the wheel bearing in.  I think these washers ID will not require the axle nut to be machined except possible for the cotter pin holes enlarged.

Update  (9/29/2022) - I'd glassed the provided cuffs to the leg fairings but they seemed rather large to have on if I flew with the wheel pants off.  So I glassed the original cuffs to the inner and outer wheel pant halves with the wheel pants in place.  I trimmed the tops of the original cuffs and cut separating lines to enable removal of the inner and outer parts.  Using a centerline as a reference, fixed the wheel pants so that the centerlines of the wheel pants were parallel with the centerline.  The forward and aft centerlines of the wheel pants were set to just under 8" measured to the floor.   The rim of the wheels were just at the bottom of the wheel pants.   Then I glassed new smaller cuffs in place with the wheel pants aligned.  After cure,  I cut some 1" round stock aluminum for spacers, three for each side.

Work remaining will be to glass the spacers in place along with reinforcement for the hard points.   Also install nut plates or camlocs to make checking tire pressure easier.