12-06 Fairing Prep

The part that I don’t like about fiberglass work is cutting & sanding to the scribe line.  I don’t know what process Van’s uses for making the scribe lines on the pieces, but it surely one of the most subtle and difficult to see lines that I could imagine.

The Book tells me to cut a fairly simple top portion and a more complex lower portion out of a “C” shaped piece and a complete cone, respectively.  I did so.  Then I started the long & tedious (and moderately nerve wracking, in case of an excessive initial cut) process of mating the two resulting pieces to have a close fit along several edges.   I then had an idea that I think will work out well in the end.   Recall that one of the pieces was a complete cone.  that means that it contains all of the material of the “C” shaped   I took the top piece and put it on the discarded material from the lower cone stock and traced out the appropriate line.  

The 1st photo shows this stage.  Back Left is the lower part of the fairing.  Back Right is the discard from the top.  Front Right is the original top piece that doesn’t quite fit the lower.  Front Left is the discard piece from the bottom (originally, a full cone) with the top traced out.   I should mention that I don’t use shears to do my initial rough cuts prior to sanding.  I have always used a dremel tool with a narrow cutting wheel.   My insight was that I could trace out the top onto the discard portion from the bottom, then cut that out using the dremel.  The resulting new top would be a very close fit to the bottom, since they were originally a single piece.

 

Fairing pieces

 

Photo 2 shows the scrap after both the bottom and the top have been cut away with the dremel tool. 

fiberglass scrap after cutting fairings

 

The 3rd photo shows the top & bottom fairings clamped into position on the tail.  There was minimal sanding needed of the adjoining surfaces.  The kerf of the dremel tool will be adequate for the gap specified by the book for paint thickness and the fit is a good as one could ask.

 

Tail Fairing clamped onto tail