Wheel Pants (7)

 7 hours

I wasn't really looking forward to messing with these fiberglass wheel pants, but they weren't too bad overall I guess.  They mount with one screw into the end of the axle on the outboard side, and four into the little rectangular plate on the inboard side.  I noticed the ends of each axle were drilled but not tapped, so I started by tapping those two holes.  Then I took a closer look at the mounting plates that I built way back when I put the wheels and brakes on.  I pretty much blindly followed the plans when I made them, not really thinking ahead how they'd be used.  They're supposed to be parallel to the ground, but mine were at some random angle.

I thought about trying to use them that way, but the bottom corner would hang down below the fiberglass, including the nut plate, so that wouldn't work.  I ended up just removing each one and flipping it over, drilled a new hole to pin it to the caliper in a level position, and then reinstalled them.  Then they were level, but the plates blocked the brake bleeder on each side.

I removed them again and cut a notch so I could get a wrench on the bleed screw.  Now I can actually start on the wheel pants!

The plans call for a hole on each side, 11" back from the front, and 2.5" up from the bottom.  I drilled those, and then updrilled the hole on the inboard side with a 1-3/4" hole saw, and finally cut a notch to match the big hole.

That was enough to get the fairing over the wheel with the brake line removed, so I installed it that way, lined it up the best I could, and then located and drilled the four holes to align with the nut plates.  Those four holes were the trickiest part.  I used a small flashlight to light them up from inside, and then I could sort of see where they were from the outside.  A couple of the holes didn't turn out great, so later I will probably repair them and drill them again.

Anyway, the last step was to create enough clearance to be able to get the fairing on around the axle and brake line.  It took a few iterations but I just kept cutting little angles and removing material until I could install it.  I'm glad I hadn't filled the brake lines yet because it was very helpful to be able to remove them from the calipers!