More cowling work ...

• The cowling is slowly making progress
• I reinforced the aft side extensions with several more layers of fiberglass
• I also did a fair amount of sanding and cleanup on all the added fiberglass
• I had spent some time working on smoothing the empennage fairing
• The big project was adding fiberglass flanges to join the top and bottom cowling halves.
• I also installed the rest of the aft skybolts for the top cowl.

Flanges turned out good. The clecos in this photo are in the pilot holes for the skybolt fasteners in the new side flanges:

Bottom cowl with new flanges after initial sanding and cleanup:

Side flanges after splitting cowls (rough):

5 layers of 3" fiberglass and peel ply per side:

Temporary braces to align the cowl. Popsicle sticks and cardboard for shims.

Painted on two coats of poly vinyl alcohol for release agent ... it worked great.

Checking alignment:

I'm glad it's easy to fill small holes in the fiberglass...

Trying to smooth the empennage fairing:

Beefing up the aft side extensions:

I also filled in the right landing gear cut out:

Cowl extending and filling:

I started working on closing the gaps between the upper and lower cowl at the front edge:

I also added glass to the bottom edge:

The right front lower cowl has the largest gap:

Some cowling rework etc.

After trimming the bottom cowl to fit more closely with the top I found that the bottom cowl skybolts were not lined up. It was causing the cowl to be offset especially on the right lower side. To fix this I decided to redo the bottom mounts. Fiberglass is great because you can fill holes / tweak things with very little downside - other than time!

Original mounting location looks good on the left side.

Trimming cowl sides revealed bad fit on right side:

Good fit - on left side!

I enlarged the right gear cut out but the fit was still bad:

Original bottom skybolts removed:

Filling the holes and beefing up lower cowl extensions:

Fabricated new skybolt mounting flanges:

Drilling cowl and flanges for skybolts:

Left side done:

Left side riveted on to firewall flange:

All done with rework!

Cowling work with a bit of instrument panel and BRS fairing

After numerous rounds of fitting, removing the cowl, trimming and sanding I have the initial bottom cowl fitting done. I believe that everything is where I want it to start installing the Skybolt fasteners and prepare for a lot of fiberglass finishing work.

I took some time to experiment with a couple of coats of the Rage Xtreme body filler on my parachute harness fairing. I'm very happy with it so far. Very easy to work with and great results! I plan on using it on all the fiberglass.

Nice to have the garage open to work! 

  

For a diversion from the cowl I spent some time and got the placard / access panel done on the instrument panel:

I needed the placard and this extra access will make it easier to do hook everything up!

I carefully cut the hole with the Dremel after drilling the corners with a step bit:

One advantage of doing the panel with a CAD program is being able to print out a template to keep everything lined up:

All Skybolt firewall flanges in place

All firewall flanges are attached:

Drilling spacer strips (The bottom cowl extension is very thick so I opted to double the .025 spacer strips):

Cowling fastener work

I mocked up the fairings and flanges to figure out the spacing for the skybolt fasteners that would work with the parachute harness fairing. I used 3" spacing for the fastener above the parachute fairing and then the standard 3.5" spacing for the 4 flanges below.

Mocking up the flanges for the left side. (Both skybolt flanges on either side of the fairing had to be cut down for the fairing to fit.)

Left side skybolt flanges riveted on:

Mocking up the right side flanges. (This side went very quickly.)

Right side flanges riveted on:

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!!):