Jay Honeck wrote:
My fancy pants (a brand of wheel pant) have been done and re-done many
times over the years, going from dzu quick-connectors to phillips
screws, having fiberglass repairs, etc.

The halves firmly screw together just fine, and they're strong as a
bridge abutment, but the tight fit between the halves has been lost.
They now have a visible 1/3" to 1/2" gap at the seam that probably
represents a fairly significant aerodynamic drag under air loads. In
fact, I've wondered if that gap doesn't open up a bit under the load of
a 140 knot wind, and has maybe lead to some of the damage we've seen
around the connectors.

It seems like a piece of tape (like is used in some aileron gap seals)
over the seam would take care of the problem. True, it would make
removing the wheel pants more of a pain, but we only remove them at
annual, anyway.

What's the rule on something like this? Would this be considered an
owner-applied cosmetic modification, or something that needs some sort
of approval?

And does anyone have an on-line source for tape of his kind?

The glider guys like this stuff...

http://www.cumulus-soaring.com/bowlus.htm