Replacing rubber wing fairings on a 1978 Sierra C24R

N5106M S/N: MC-578

Let me start by saying this not a difficult job to do. It can be frustrating and takes a bit of
patience, but it is not difficult. However, before I get into the actual process of replacing
the rubber wing fairings of my 1978 Sierra, let me elaborate on how I got to the point of
taking on this job.

I bought the plane from a gentleman in South Carolina in September 1995. The plane
was in good shape and the exterior paint can best be described as a “good 20 foot paint
job,” meaning from 20 feet and with a wax job it looked pretty good. But, in November
of 1997 my wife and I decided that we wanted to have the plane painted. After all the
typical research and agony of colors and paint scheme, we took the plane to Arizona for
the work to be done.

After meeting with the folks at the paint shop and then doing a walk-around to be sure of
the layout I wanted, I asked about the wing fairings and the response was, “we won’t
fool with them because you have to loosen the wings to remove and replace them!”
Ignorant of the truth about the replacement process, I acquiesced and went with the
paint shop’s advice. Though not a huge mistake, it was a lost opportunity nonetheless
and here’s why.

The wing fairings appeared to be original. Not totally deteriorated but a long way from
looking good and probably not really performing their function. To make matters worse,
somewhere along the way, a black, rubberized “paint” had been applied to the fairings
which did seal cracks and look better but the rubber paint had been applied beyond the
bounds of the fairing and right on the sheet metal of the wing. It seemed to make a
good seal and, as I mentioned, did improve the appearance of the aging fairings, but it
was a mess that was going to make the fairing replacement job even more of a
challenge.

Jumping forward to the decision to replace the fairings, I read about doing the job on
Musketeermail several years ago. The author of the forum posting said the job was not
too difficult and he even gave some step-by-step instructions on how to do it. I was
encouraged and promptly ordered a set of replacement fairings from Beechcraft. The
fairings are not particularly expensive. I think they were about $75 each and they came
in about 12 foot lengths, more than enough to do each wing. I’m sure the price has
gone up since I purchased mine and hopefully Beechcraft still has some in stock so you

can buy some if this article inspires you!

Anyway, several annuals came and went. The new paint job was well done and I
always got nice compliments on the plane wherever I went. But, the “old” fairings
bugged me and I knew the day of reckoning was coming. As time went along, I’d
occasionally ask my A&P about doing the job and he always said that the job is not too
tough but the “smeared on black paint” was going to be a problem. Each time he said
that, I decided to postpone the job because after a few years of ownership and learning
the truth about removing and installing fairings, the mistake I made with the painters
was haunting me and freezing me into inaction!

Finally, this year I said “enough” and I made up my mind to tackle the job, “smeared on
rubber paint” and all. You’ll see in the pictures what I meant by the black rubber paint
extending beyond the bounds of the original fairings.
Now, I don’t know what the black stuff is but let me just say it was tough to get off. In
fact, I had to leave that to the new painter I hired, which I will describe more in detail
later. Suffice it to say, I had to get some professional help to remove the stuff!

Before I get into the specifics of the job, let me tell you about the tools one would
normally need to do the job. Of course you need the new fairings, but then about all
you will need are some plastic mixer blades and a putty knife, preferably one that has
the factory edge smooth down from use over the years. If the putty knife edges are not
smooth, I’d recommend your smooth them with a file. That will help avoid damaging the
new fairings as well as reduce the chance of scratching the plane’s paint.

Next you’ll need a razor or modeler’s knife and some 3M Adhesive remover. I suspect
any similar product will do but the 3M is pretty easy to find and it works well. Also, you’ll
need some 3M Weather strip adhesive in black. When you get the new fairing in place,
there will be places along the length of it that just don’t sit tightly against the sheet metal
and gluing it down is the best way to get a good seal. It is my understanding that the
Beech factory glued the fairings down, too.
In the picture you’ll see some KY jelly (stop snickering). It was recommended by the
posting I read on Musketeermail. The theory being that the lubrication of the new fairing
during installation would ease the process. I did not find that to be true. I tried using the
jelly and it just seemed to make the fairing more difficult to handle and position. Plus, if
you use the jelly (or soapy water) it has to be thoroughly removed before you can apply
the glue. Otherwise you will not get a good seal. You can try it and make you own
decision.

With all these hi-tech tools and supplies, I began the process of removing the old
fairings. I started at the trailing edge of the wing by inserting the putty knife under the
old fairing to crack open the old adhesive and to get enough of the old fairing loose so
that I could get a finger-hold on it. Once I
could get a good grip on the fairing, I simply began to pull up and away from the
wing/fuselage junction with a firm, constant pressure.

The old fairing actually came out very easily. From time to time you might encounter a
particularly well glued spot that requires you to use the putty knife to do some prying but
for the most part, it comes right off. As you can see in the photographs, there is a good
amount of old, dried adhesive and all of that has to come off.

Once you have the old fairing off (it came off in about 15 minutes for me), you have to
clean off all the old adhesive. In my case, I immediately realized the challenge I had
before me because I had to deal with the “smeared on black rubberized” paint. The
photo of the leading edge of the wing clearly shows the left over rubberized paint that I
had to remove. The 3M adhesive remover did not affect that stuff at all. This was when
my bad decision back at the paint shop in 1995 really came home to haunt me!

After I got the first fairing off, I began the process of removing the old adhesive. Using
the 3M remover, a small paint brush, a bunch of rags and a lot of elbow grease, I
scrubbed and rubbed until the old glue was completely

off.

As the next picture shows, I did manage to get some of the rubberized paint off but it
was extremely difficult and time consuming. Further, from the picture you can see that
there is a gap between the wing sheet metal and the fuselage skin. Generally, this gap
varies from 1/8 to 3/8 inch in width and this is enough to work the new fairing into
position. But, on the underside of each wing, there was a space of about 12 inches
from the trailing edge of the wing forward where the factory had left essentially no
clearance. In fact, during the removal process the old fairing tore along the 12 inch
section because the wing’s sheet metal was so tight to the fuselage it was pinching the
fairing. At that particular spot in the fuselage, there was no “give” when you pressed on
the fuselage, so we had to deal with the tight gap in a special way.
The next photograph shows the area where the factory really jammed the wing root
against the fuselage leaving no room to install the new fairing. In fact you may notice
that a couple of rivet heads are touching the wing sheet metal essentially ending any
chance of getting the new fairing in place.
At this point, I knew I had to get my A&P involved because the wing’s sheet metal would
have to be trimmed. There is nothing right under the wing skin that is in danger of being
damaged by the cut, but all I have is a small rotary cutting tool and I knew that wasn’t
the best tool for the job.

My mechanic took a look, examined the wing carefully, consulted the Beech shop
manual and made a careful determination that the removal of about 1/8 inch of the
wing’s sheet metal could safely be done. Using a pneumatic, rotary cutter, he carefully
did the job that was needed.
Here is a shot of the underside of the wing with the cut made. This would give me the
clearance to install the new fairing. The cutting work took less than 10 minutes per
wing.
Now with both the old fairings removed, the old adhesive residue cleaned off, and the
underside of each wing skin trimmed, I had to call on the local paint shop to size up the
best way to clean off the old black rubberized paint, prep and paint the small area that
would be left bare when the old rubberized paint was removed. We discussed a few
options but the decision was made to tape off the wing as close to the fuselage as
advisable and paint from the tape line back to fuselage.

I won’t belabor the paint process, but suffice it to say some stripper was needed to
remove the residue of the old rubberized paint. It took some time and patience but they
got it off. Then with some prepping and priming, they painted the wing about 2 inches
from the fuselage out toward the wing tip. The color matching was about as good as I
could be hope for and when buffed and waxed a bit, it will be difficult to tell that the job
has been done.
With the paint work done, it was time to start the new fairing installation. We started at
the trailing edge of the left wing. I should point out up front that the new fairing cannot
be started and then simply pushed or pulled around the wing. This seems to be the
intuitive idea, especially when one sees the actual design of the fairing and how it grips
the wing skin. The reason you can’t simply “slide” the new fairing on is because there
are places where there is no clearance between the wing sheet metal and other pieces
of metal in the wing….most notable the main wing spar! The wing spar and a few other
metal junction points require that you trim the fairing in order to get the fairing to seat
properly. The fairing has a “lip” on it that goes on the inside of the wing sheet metal that
holds the fairing to the wing. The lip has to be trimmed. A good, sharp modeler’s knife
will suffice.
We precut the fairing for the main spar and then began the actual installation. As I said,
we started at the trailing edge of the wing and worked forward.
Working together we coaxed the “lip” of the fairing down and under the wing skin using
the plastic mixer blades, the putty knife, finger pressure and a few choice words! This
shot shows us working over the top middle of the wing. This is a particularly fiddley
area due to the metal doubler that is riveted to the top of the wing.
This shot illustrates what I said earlier about the new fairing needing to be glued down
after it is fully installed. The doubler, in this case, exacerbates the problem of the fairing
not sealing “naturally.” The fit is good against the fuselage; the fairing only needs to be
glued down along the wing surface.
Here we’ve “turned the corner” and begun the move under the wing and toward the
empennage. As you work along, sometimes the new fairing seems to just pop into
place and you can make good progress. Then there are times when it just doesn’t
cooperate at all. Take your time and inspect a lot as you go along. The “lip” has to be
completely seated around the edge of the wing sheet metal.

Sometimes we encountered spots that were particularly difficult. There seemed to be

something on the “underside” of the wing skin causing friction or blocking the lip from
moving into place. We found when we ran into these tough spots, we would just skip
over a few inches and get the fairing started beyond the tough spot. Once we had the
fairing “established” on either side of the tough spot, we found it helped to work from
both sides of the tough spot and we could finally get the lip to seat.
This photo shows some trimming of the lip where the main spar sits flush against the
wing skin. Just beyond the spar (to the right in this shot) is the section of wing sheet
metal we had to trim. Once we got there, we were within inches of completing the
installation.
And here is the right wing with the new fairing installed. It took us about six hours to get
to this point. From here we laid down some masking tape to help prevent making a
mess with the 3M adhesive. Once we had the wings taped off, we applied a thin bead
of glue to the fairing that sits along the wing surface only. As I mentioned, the fairing
seems to naturally seal against the fuselage without any gaps.
In this shot you see that the masking tape is doing it’s job rather well. As soon as the
adhesive set enough to hold the fairing down, we removed the tape and did as much
detail clean-up along the length of the fairing as necessary. Since the adhesive was still
a bit tacky, the clean-up didn’t really need any sort of solvent, but don’t wait for it to
completely set up to do your clean-up or it will definitely be a difficult detailing job to do.
And finally, here is a shot of the finished project. The seal is good, the look is tidy and
professional and the new fairing will last for years to come.