I am trying to use the wheelpants that came with my G.P Super Sportster 40 and came up with a problem.

I am building it as a tricycle gear instead of the tailwheel so in installing the main landing gear further back as instructed the front of the wheel pants are way too close to the floor, and with it being this close to the floor I know how much closer it will be on the ground. Close enough that one bounce would rip them off.

I guess that by moving the landing gear from the front of the wing to more center has somehow effected the orientation of the wheel pants. They were built as instructed so all is lined up proper, and I am using the recommended 2 1/2" wheels but building it as instructed has pushed the front of the wheel pants at a very sharp angle, with the tip almost touching the ground.

So I would like to know if changing the wheels to 3" would lift the front of the pants enough to not be an issue? I do not want to buy the 3" wheels if it is not going to help, I would just as soon not have the wheelpants on, although it really would have looked nice.

Would the premade ARF wheelpants fit the kit better?

The indentations in the gear intended for the gear wire are angled to accomidate the slightly forward swept gear of the tail dragger. To use the pants on your configuration you'll have to modify them slightly and mount them at a more appropriate angle. It shouldn't be that big of a deal to do.

Thank you for your quick response chuck.
So I will have to somehow make an indentation in the pants in a new location?
And how would I fill in the hole I drilled, the holes from the screws, and the groove already in the pants?
And how do I remove and redo the wooden inserts that the landing gear wire slips through?
Would it be best to move the groove more forward ahead of the old groove, or behind?

I would call Hobby Services and/or send them an email with the pictures, It really wouldn't surprise me if they sent you a different pair, without the indentation.

http://hobbyservices.com/contact.html

Of course you can get creative and try to find a way to modify the wheel pants, the gear wire, or the way the pants attach to the gear. I think personally I would fly without the pants and wait for Hobby Services response.

A fix I might try, if that's the route I was going to take, would be to attach two small pieces of bass wood vertically to the wheel pants, to create a channel for the gear to sit in. Probably two tiny blind nuts on each, inside the wheel pant, and two small screws. Maybe some epoxy as well.

depending on how the landing gear is mounted, just swapping side to side may put the right angle on the pants. Not swapping the pants, but the landing gear.

One other option is to bend the landing gear wire right at the top of the pants for the ring angle. This would be my last resort though.

Don

The indentation is nice but not absolutely necessary, many wheel pants don't have one.

I'd use some sort of filler for the holes and indentation like plastic model filler or even bondo.

Is the ply piece epoxied in? If so, removing it could be a pain without damaging the pants. Maybe you could add some more plywood so you have soemthing to screw into at the new angle?

These look like the ABS wheel pants included with the kit? If it were me, I'd just get some good fiberglass pants. You might find that some from an ARF like the GP Cherokee are a great fit.

Wheel pants are a pain in the ***** IMO. Just leave them off. Afterall, since you're going with trike gear, you'll have no pants for the nose wheel, so let them all go pants free!

As -PKH- said, unless you are going to put a wheel pant on the front wheel it's going to look a bit odd to have wheel pants on the mains and not on the nose wheel. </p>

If you do want to fill the indent in the existing wheel pants using a epoxy and microballons in it makes for a excellent high strength low weight filler. It's very easy to sand and it is very strong. If you don't have microballons you can substitute corn starch instead. It's not quite as good as the microballons but will get the job done. Using 30 minute epoxy mix up a batch of epoxy and the slowly add corn starch to it until the epoxy is the consistency of peanut butter. Then fill your indent with it. Once it's dried you can sand it smooth.</p>

Ken</p>

I have used microballons before and it came out too hard to sand, did not like it. If I was to use bondo to fill everything up won't the splotches of bondo show throught the paint?

It doesn't matter what you use, if you don't prepare it properly it's going to show through when you paint it. Bondo is prepped in the same manner as any other material before you paint it. Once it's prepped and primed properly you won't be able to see it at all.</p>

If you used microballons and it wasn't sandable then you did something wrong. This is a technique that has been used for decades by thousands of modelers. It's a proven strong and lightweight material that works great. If you used it once and it didn't work instead of dismissing the practice why not learn how to do it properly so that you can benefit from it? </p>

If you want to use bondo go ahead and use bondo. But as we said in your other thread, it's a very heavy material to be using as a filler. Also, bondo is designed to be applied as a body filler and should be applied in as thin of layers as you can get. When it's put on too thickly it crack from vibration and fall out. And the indent in your wheel pants is too thick to be using bondo.</p>

If you don't want to use epoxy and micro balloons then a great product would be Model Matrix from Epo-grip. It's basically an epoxy with milled fiberglass in it. It is very strong and will sand glass smooth. I've used it for doing some cowl repair and I'll never use anything else again. When I was at their booth at Top Gun they had a cowl that was built completely from Model Matrix. It's good stuff.</p>

Ken</p>

I just filled all the seams, holes and landing gear wire grooves with MicroBalloons and 30-minute epoxy, mixed apprx 3 parts MicroBalloons to apprx 1 part epoxy. About how long should I give it before it can be sanded?

Oops! guess I am a little late.  I was going to suggest using heat.  You could have used a trim sealing iron to re-shape the plastic so you wouldn't have had to use as much filler.  </p>

</p>

You should let that set up overnight so the epoxy won't load up the sandpaper as bad.</p>