SonexBuilders.net

Hi all, I'm working on mounting wheel pants on my scratch built Sonex. I have 5" tires, Tracy Obrien axles,
Great Plains disc brakes and the Azuza tri star rims. I've added 1" width to the Sonex wheel pants to fit
over the 5" tires. I have the outboard mounting figured out, but a picture of the inboard side would sure
help.

Thanks!

Rick
Sonex 524

Hi Rick

Until recently I had a similar setup with the GP brakes and 500.5 tires. I've now replaced these pants with pressure recovery pants.

I cut out around the caliper, drilled and tapped 3 holes in the flat part of the Great Plains cast aluminium caliper support and fitted a small bracket with nutplate for the rear hole. Note the upper right mount hole is a spare from when I had standard drum brakes.

Sorry I cant find a photo with the wheel pants fitted but a photo of a wheel pant may give you the idea.


Steve
Sonex 892

Thanks Steve! Maybe this is a dumb question...but, was your brake disc inside or outside the wheel pant?
Even with the extra inch of width I added, the pant would be pretty stressed to have the disc inside.

Rick
Sonex 524

Hi Rick

The disc was inside, only the caliper was exposed. Mine original wheel pants weren't widened, so it was a very tight fit. It worked this way for 5 years and 400+ landings. It did have to be stressed to fit. The only cracking I ever experienced was where I glassed in a bit of a junction fillet. It wasn't the pant cracking just the bond between the pant and the fillet.

These photos of my new wheel pant support bracket may help, the cutouts were traced directly from the old wheel pants. The flat part of the bracket screws to the same holes on the caliper bracket as the original wheel pants did.




Steve
Sonex 892

Nice job on the new wheel pants Steve, they look good! I did a search on pressure recovery wheel pants
and found some interesting reading, might have to give them a shot. Thanks for the help!

Rick
Sonex 524

Those look like Vans pants. Which model? I like them.

They do look good. Did they buy you any speed?

fastj22 wrote:Those look like Vans pants. Which model? I like them.

Home made John, based on the RV shape. They're about 20% bigger than an RV6 nose wheel pant, which was too tight for the 500.5 tires

Bryan Cotton wrote:They do look good. Did they buy you any speed?

I'd like to think they are Bryan. Not much though, maybe a knot or 2 if any.

Steve
Sonex 892

sonex892. wrote:

fastj22 wrote:Those look like Vans pants. Which model? I like them.

Home made John, based on the RV shape. They're about 20% bigger than an RV6 nose wheel pant, which was too tight for the 500.5 tires

Bryan Cotton wrote:They do look good. Did they buy you any speed?

I'd like to think they are Bryan. Not much though, maybe a knot or 2 if any.

Steve
Sonex 892

If you got molds, care to make me a set?

fastj22 wrote:

sonex892. wrote:

fastj22 wrote:Those look like Vans pants. Which model? I like them.

Home made John, based on the RV shape. They're about 20% bigger than an RV6 nose wheel pant, which was too tight for the 500.5 tires

Bryan Cotton wrote:They do look good. Did they buy you any speed?

I'd like to think they are Bryan. Not much though, maybe a knot or 2 if any.

Steve
Sonex 892

If you got molds, care to make me a set?

Or,
You could come to an arrangement Peter to to pass on the design/mould to the ansoneng company which already makes many other great Sonex improvement components ;-).