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Anyone Use Vinyl on Wheel Pants

BH1166

Well Known Member
If you did, you do it with pants mounted so to have it stabilized to pull/stretch the film? How many pieces did you use? Where are your seams? I have the old style pants, so I understand if your technique might not work for me. I have covered many RC airplanes with monocote and other films. Anxious to try to up grade my 6A. The base looks good other than leading edges, just a bit plain Jane to me( no offense to any Jane reading this )

 
So a bad idea?

Guess maybe I?m in virgin territory on this approach. Maybe I should take to a shop that installs vinyl? Just searching a little direction. They are paint ready, maybe grab the paint gun ugh 😩
 
My hangar "next door neighbor" has been doing wraps for a couple years now, and he had a guy come by in a beautiful RV-9 that he had just finished...it was 100% wrapped 2-3 different colors, wheel pants, cowlings and everything really showed well. I'm impressed by the capabilities of vinyl, but I don't know the longevity benefits or downfalls for long term durability. Whats really nice, is he can do it in the hangar next to me with no worries of overspray,fumes, ect.
 
Yes

Repainted my nose wheel last summer and there was a guy at the paint shop who specialized in vinyl. Was able to match my other stripes perfectly.
It was done with the pant off the airplane but measurements and pictures were taken first.
 
Four

I did my plane in vinyl, but I'm no expert. I think recognizing your limitations is important. By that, I mean, breaking the application down into smaller pieces to have a better outcome.

Make no mistake the compound curves are likely to make this a non-perfect application. If it was my plane I would do it realizing it was not going to come out perfectly and I would have to live with some small wrinkles.

A pro may be able to do this on one or two pieces. Looking at your pic I would plan on four. Even then, I know its going to be challenging due to the curves.

I would do one side first and split the vinyl longitudinally down the middle. I'd first lay 2 stripes of cutting tape on the the top, one for the first cut and one for the second side (or use triple tape). Also do two strips of cutting tape horizontally down the middle of one side, longitudinally.

Then try applying the top piece of the first side. For me, I'd be prepared to do this two or three times before I got it right. Good thing vinyl is cheap!

Once you get the first piece as close as possible the learning experience should help you with the following ones.

If you trying for show quality, that's another story... Then I would hire someone to do it - or paint it.
 
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