In my case, I've been grappling with the "fingers" on top of the leg fairings breaking loose. It first happened when I was up wanging around doing some rolls and stuff. That put a lot of stress on 'em, as you'd imagine it would, and the right one broke loose. You can tell immediately when it happens, because all of a sudden the ball will be a half-ball out. No doubt about it when that occurs. Anyway, I riveted aluminum fingers on in place of the fiberglass, and that worked really well...for a while. But it's not a permanent solution. Just the other day one of the aluminum fingers finally broke, and I immediately saw a ball excursion (sounds painful?). With all the flexing that the gear legs endure, it's inevitable that the fingers will eventually crack and shear off, no matter what material or thickness or whatever you use for 'em.
So what it comes down to for me is that I need to "enhance" the cuff area on the upper intersection fairings to fit the leg fairings more snugly. It's time to do that. The plane is "down" for maintenance (changing the plugs back to Densos, priming some fiberglass, and this leg fairing stuff...and eventually wheel pants), so now's the time.
I've also been told by a bunch of local RV'ers that they used the spray insulation foam stuff inside their gear leg fairings. Apparently, many people swear by this method, claiming that it really does immobilize the leg fairings rotationally. I originally scoffed at the idea, because it kinda precludes the possibility of getting the leg fairings off easily and maintaining the brake lines and stuff...but the more I thought about it the more I realized that in theory I'll never have to remove the leg fairings once I get 'em where I want 'em. And if I ever did really have to get 'em off, it's not impossible. It would just entail slicing along the back with a razor blade and then "peeling" it away from the gear leg. A mess at the time, but it wouldn't be destructive...just fill it back up with foam.
So today I finally broke down and did it. I bought a couple of cans of Great Stuff insulating foam sealant at Home Depot, and I filled the leg fairings with goop.
The little tube that comes with the can is about 8" long or so. I just shoved it all the way into the leg fairing and sprayed. The foam kinda filled up and down from there, and it worked out nicely. I did this from the top end and again from the bottom, and it kind of met in the middle.
Next I changed out the NGK spark plugs on the Lightspeed ignition back to Densos, using the new W27EMR-C plugs I bought from Klaus the other day. I also cleaned my fuel injectors, which are supposed to get cleaned every 100 hours according to Airflow Performance. I had been seeing a little 5-degree fluctuation on cylinder #2's EGT in cruise, and I figured it could be a partially clogged injector. We'll see if cleaning did the trick.
Ok, now the inevitable, laying up the fiberglass. I put some thought into how I wanted to do this, and I'm really happy with what I ended up with. First I marked a line on the leg where the original fairing cuff came down to. Then I wrapped teflon sticky-back tape around the leg to provide an easy release. I laid up one ply of 8oz cloth on the leading and trailing edges, and one ply of 3oz cloth on the long sides. Then I slathered a thick flox-epoxy mixture all over the area from about 1" below the existing cuff line to about 1" above it. I had roughed up (60 grit) and cleaned the fairing, and then I slid it up onto the leg and screwed it into place. What ended up happening was the flox mixture oozed all around the leg fairing and filled the entire void between it and the intersection fairing. I then laid up a few plies of 3oz cloth all around the area on the exterior, extending the cuff an inch or two down. Here you can kind of see the white flox mixture, how it oozed up and down and all around...
I sanded, cleaned, and primed the top cowl.
There are pinholes galore. This will definitely need a fair bit of filling work before paint.
