ETLB Squawk Forums — Archive

Hi guys,
Thought I would share some pictures of what i've been up to lately. I spent last weekend in the shop laying up wing to fuselage fairings for the Vmax. after bridging the wing to fuselage gap with poster board and laying down a layer of was paper the fairings were laid up using 2 layers of 6oz fiberglass cloth and polyester resin. After allowing them to cure overnight I trimmed them to shape and painted to match. The paint code listed in the log for my max is Bahama Blue however a test piece showed that Bahama Blue is a good bit lighter than the finish on the plane. A quick trip to the aircraft section of the local hardware store yielded a can of rust-oleum Intense Blue which looks like a near perfect match!

will closing the wing gap add a knot or 2? maybe..... but either way she sure looks better with the fairings.
Photos Below.

Chris

Chris, Nice glass work. I don't think you will see any performance increase, but the cosmetics are definitely improved.

And the color match looks damn fine from here.

How are the fairings held in place? They certainly clean up the fuselage/wing meeting point.

Lynn

Lynn,

After the photos were taken I simply screwed them to the fuselage ply with 7ea #6x1/4" pan head screws.

Chris

Thanks. Since there didn't appear to be a way of holding them on I had to ask.

Lynn

It is a great color match, and looks very close to how I painted a VMax (with hardware store paint) several years ago.  OK a couple decades ago I guess it's been now....
Perhaps we both grabbed the same can of paint.

Another way to minimize the unsightly wing to fuselage gap there is to leave the leading edge ply extending beyond the root rib and then trim it to fit at assembly.  It does not give any sort of fillet like your fiberglass part does, but it is an easy way to close or minimize the unsightly gap.