Glassing up the upper and lower body fairings....
I have a basic flimsy set of the upper wing body fairings. Should I stiffen them some with foam? any ideas? Are there any tricks for laying up the lower? Should tool/molds be built to aid this process? The manuals are completely vague. It almost seems like they expect them to just materialize... What is the best attaching medium? Mix of resin and glass beads? or some form of 2-part epoxy mix up?
Any good off the shelf seat sliding adjusters? I have the slots and the nylon pieces, but if I slide the seat forward I have to break out the wrenches and tighten the bolts, doesn't seem efficient to me. Are there any known/available mechanisms for holding the seat in position? Or is fixed the best answer...
For those getting ready to install their seats, I recommend using something like this http://www.ebay.com/itm/2-Linear-Actuat ... Cz-P14AolQ.
The seats are notoriously hard to adjust with the manual locks especially when seated. These will push 225 lbs and hold over 500 static. Install one bracket against the spar carry through and the other to a bracket that you make to glass in to the bottom of the seat.
You will thank me.
The fairings can be glassed in to the wings and then sealed to the fuse, or they can be glassed to both surfaces. I prefer the first so that if I need to remove the wings ( I have had to do this) you don't have to take a saw to the airplane. I can have my wings off and the whole thing on a trailer in less than 6 hours with only my 14 year old to help me.
I highly recommend initial flight testing with the fairings off. I have flown 2 different aircraft with heavy right wings. The correction is usually a bit of aileron adjustment and a droopy flap. It would be much easier to adjust the wing incidence on the heavy side by a quarter of a degree, test fly it and then add the fairings.
The basic procedure is to use clecos or screws to attach the bottom of the fairing to the top wing skin and at the same time fit it to the fuse. When you are happy, cleco it to the fuse. The clecos will be about 1/4 inch in from the edge of the fairing material. Glass the bottom fairing in and then the fuse side if you like. Slick it up and done.
Like Kevin suggested, adding a linear actuator under the seat is the way to go. There are nice small ones available out there. I have a pair of rocker switches in the center console to adjust them.
The other thing I did is to laminate the seat slides with 1/8th" by 2" wide teflon form McMaster Carr, attached with recessed rivets, and the same slots as the stock slides. Makes a world of difference in how easily the seats move back and forth. The linear actuators are held in place at the back with pins inserted through the mounting bracket and actuator, so to remove seats, I run them forward enough to reach in, pull the pins, slide the seats forward to align the retaining screws with the holes in the slides, and lift them out.