Wheel pants restoration
 

When I got my new-to-me SBach 342 in the fall of the 2012 there were a few things I wanted to do to ready it for the 2013 season. On the list of cosmetics were the wheel pants which had seen better days.

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On of the first things I noticed was a problem with the alignment.

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I took them off to give them an acetone soak. An unused toilet brush was great for removing unused paint.

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Lo and behold, a nice white gelcoat appeared.

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RE: Wheel pants restoration
 

The next step was to correct the alignment. After careful consideration I determined the starboard pant was out of whack, so I marked the new hole...

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filled in the old one...

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and drilled out the new one.

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That did the trick.

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RE: Wheel pants restoration
 

To complete the starboard wheel pant alignment I pressed a new blind nut into the hole and epoxied it in.

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The original designed had the axle holes sticking out of the outer sides of the wheel pants. I didn't want that, so I fabbed some sockets for the tips of the axles.

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They were lined up and epoxied into the inside of the pants.

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RE: Wheel pants restoration
 

The replacements for the beat-up main gear were 1/4" larger, which required that the wheel pant openings be enlarged a bit. I traced the shape of the openings with a soft pencil and imported them into a drawing application to make templates for the new cutouts.

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I cut out four templates - two for each leading and trailing edge. I used each one in turn to trace the new outline onto the part...

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Grabbed the dremel with the sanding drum...

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And enlarged the opening.

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RE: Wheel pants restoration
 

With the enlargements the wheels fit just right.

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Back to filling the axle holes on the outside of the pants. I cut a couple of small lengths off a dowel and epoxied them in place.

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Once the epoxy cured, out came the trusty flush cut saw.

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I filled some other chips in the outer coat with epoxy and got everything sanded down.

RE: Wheel pants restoration
 

When both of the pants had their low spots filled and had been progressively sanded to 220 grit and thoroughly washed and dried, I set up a makeshift painting booth with an old box fan as an exhaust.

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Another fan at the open shop window was a big help.

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Lessons learned about painting in the house:

- It can be very smelly
- My wife does not like the faint smell of paint
- If the furnace is on, the cold air intake in the basement will suck up the fumes and spread them all over the house
- My wife REALLY does not like the strong smell of paint

Best practices:

- Paint late - not long before bed
- Shut off the furnace
- Open the shop window
- Turn on both fans
- Paint
- Wash up
- Wait until the smell is mostly gone from the shop
- Turn off both fans
- Shut the shop window
- Turn on the furnace. By this time it's in night mode and is set about 4ºC lower than the rest of the house so it won't come on til morning.

After the first coat a lot of sanding scratches were visible through the paint. I finish sanded both pants all over with wet 600 grit and that made a big difference. I worked my way up to five coats of gloss black and I'm very pleased with the result.

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RE: Wheel pants restoration
 

And on the plane:

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RE: Wheel pants restoration
 

"Best practices:

- Paint late - not long before bed
- Shut off the furnace
- Open the shop window
- Turn on both fans
- Paint
- Wash up
- Wait until the smell is mostly gone from the shop
- Turn off both fans
- Shut the shop window
- Turn on the furnace. By this time it's in night mode and is set about 4ºC lower than the rest of the house so it won't come on til morning. "

Move to Southern California, and don't worry about any of that stuff:-))))))))))))))

Les

RE: Wheel pants restoration
 

Just wondering is it safe to clean paint off any fiber glassed part using aceatone?

thanks
Bill S.

RE: Wheel pants restoration
 

Acetone will not damage polyester or epoxy parts, so wash away...

Bob

RE: Wheel pants restoration
 

Double post, my bad.

Bob

RE: Wheel pants restoration
 

I'd be wondering about how safe it would be to paint near a fan that isn't rated as explosion proof.

RE: Wheel pants restoration
 

"Acetone will not damage polyester or epoxy parts, so wash away... "

I will question that. Seems to me that when we were building my son's surfboards, and his Long-EZ (full size), acetone was what we used for cleanup, to get the resin off of everything.

Better test first.

Les