Upper cowl skybolt progress and BRS fairing sanding

Most of the Skybolt fasteners are installed for the upper cowl. (I'm going to wait for the final 3 on each side until I fit the lower cowl.)

The Skybolt fasteners look good. I still have to do some adjusting for the final fit.

I used the o-ring method to hold everything in place until after final paint when I will put on the metal retainers.

I was able to rivet everything fairly easily other than the area around the brake reservoir.

This photo does not show it well but a small led light under the cowling made it easy to see where to drill the holes.

The BRS fairing is ready for a coat of filler (RAGE ... XTREME!!):

BRS fairing modification and some cowl work

Fairing with first layer of epoxy and micro balloons. (I plan on sanding most of this off then trying the Rage Xtreme filler for the final coat. I also plan on using the Rage on the cowl for pin hole filling.)

I used 3 layers of fiberglass tape for the layup:

While the layup was curing I put in one of the skybolt cowl fasteners:

Initial curing. Top layer is peel ply.

Layup ready for peel ply:

Ready for lay up. (Before I put the fairing on I waxed all of the harness and spacer tape.)

Harness taped in place with cardboard spacer.

BRS parachute fairing work:

• I decided to work on the parachute harness fairings because the harness passes through the edge of the cowling and affect where some of the cowling fasteners are located.
• One challenge was the thickness and routing of the rear parachute harness. I could not get the fairing to fit over it and fit correctly. I emailed BRS and an engineer actually called me within and hour and suggested some solutions. Very nice customer service!

Mocking up left side fairings:

The harness that runs under the right side of this fairing is the problem. It's very thick. I'm in the process of sanding the inside of the fairing for more space. I'm also using a heat gun on the fairing to help the fit.

I marked off where the fairing goes in relation to the cowl so I can plan the skybolt tabs:

This is the problem harness. I have since moved it behind the bolt head and the fit is getting closer.

Cowl progress

• As of today the top cowl position has been "locked in". After much sanding and leveling etc. I drilled holes for temporary clecos to keep it from moving. 
• I also was able to trim the lower cowl to fit around the landing gear and get the lower cowl temporarily in place.
• On the bottom cowl I spent a fair amount of time sanding the extensions and ended up adding some more fiberglass cloth in a few thin spots. Ironically in some places much of the lower extensions will be trimmed off.

Looks better with top and bottom on!

Trimming the lower cowl for the landing gear:

After trying many different methods I found that leveling the plane on the gear and then using a self leveling laser provided good results leveling the cowl.

Lots of marking where to sand, removing the cowl, sanding and replacing the cowl ... it felt like about fifty times!

After initial close trim and sand:

Marked for final trimming:

The laser proved invaluable.

The fit of the two cowl halves is fairly rough. I will be doing a lot of filling and sanding...

More initial fitting of the two halves

Upper skybolt fastener tabs riveted on:

Dimpling the spacer strips that go between the skybolt tabs and the firewall skin:

Drilling spacer strips:

Working on the upper spacer strip: