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Date: 07-08-2024
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Number of Hours: 30.00
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Short Description: Fiberglass Upper Intersection Fairings
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If you are reading this to get some ideas on how to fabricate Upper Intersection Fairings, I guess the first thing I would mention is don’t follow VAN’s instructions for the ‘old style” fairings. The instructions say to coat the fairing with two layers of fiberglass cloth prior to installation. This makes the fairing too stiff, and you can’t get it to fit properly without cutting the fairing and re-fiberglassing. I ended up buying new fairings from VAN’s 3rd party site and still have lots to do to make them fit properly without gaps. This is a definite, time-consuming reiterative process of my own making…Apply Packing Tape and Vaseline to the fuselage and leg fairing. Drill holes for Platenuts. Sand the leg fairing with the rotary sander. Sand the upper parts of the Intersection Fairing. Apply Fiberglass strips with epoxy to the upper sides and one side of the aft intersection fairing. Apply Fiberglass Flox to the top of the intersection fairing so it squeezes out all around the top when clecoed. Cleco in-place including clamps on the aft extension of the intersection fairing. After the Intersection Fairing has cured, sand any ‘rough’ cured flox areas and apply two fiberglass layers to the outer ‘rim’ of the intersection fairing, cure, re-sand, and repeat until the fairing is ready to prime. I’m sure other people can do this much faster and better than me. These two pictures show the initial fitting and the ‘rough fiberglass’ applied. On one of the fairings, I applied Peel-Ply hoping to save some time. That didn’t work well, though. Peel-Ply over complex curves like these tend to separate when drying and you have lots of filling you need to do for a final finish.
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![](http://www.kitlog.com/photos/project_338/full/FP16072024A0000F.jpg)
Rough-Fit After Floxing Top
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![](http://www.kitlog.com/photos/project_338/full/FP16072024A0000G.jpg)
Peel-Ply Applied Wet
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