Gear leg covers

[Pacer42Z]

It has bothered me for a long time how the gear leg covers looked on my Pacer. Over the years they have been repaired a couple of times and the way they are designed they will break sooner or later. This is how the one for the left side looks like:


I decided to design and fabricate a two piece cover which can be taken off the Pacer without bending it. Here is the finished piece (before paint):



Here is how it looks after installed. Now I separate the two pieces and no more scratching up the gear legs.


All it took was some aluminum sheet metal, a couple of rivets, two 10-32 rivnuts (I think that is what you call them) and some time to make them.

Juergen
Pacer N3342Z

[Steve Pierce]

Nice project that will pay dividends over the coming years.

[Glen Geller]

Nice! Mine are in similar sad shape so I've been thinking of something like that for my PA22 as well.
Also thinking it could be made to allow the gear leg sheet metal overlap the belly panels ~1/2" to seal that area better in flight.

GG

[Subsonic]

Glen - If you overlap that belly panel to close the gap, is there some chance that gear movement will create a problem?

[Pacer42Z]

I thought about it, but mine is a Univair conversion and I went through the trouble of lifting the Pacer to see how the gear panels look when "in flight". I found mine where not really perfect to provide a surface on the belly of the Pacer. Part of the panel was slightly "sticking out" from the belly, some was slightly recessed. I would have had to spend a lot of time to try to adjust or modify the mounting tabs and decided it's not worth the effort (for me). Your plane (especially when it is an original Tri-Pacer) may looks better and everything is perfectly lined up, but if you make panels that overlap, make sure to lift the airplane off the gear so you know how it works and you don't find out after your first flight that there is some bend metal.

Juergen
Pacer N3342Z