Lower Cowling Flanges

The lower cowling flanges are made in much the same way as the upper, except it is much harder because gravity is working against you, so after wetting the wing, cowling, and glass, I let it all get tacky. Then I tried to fold and apply it too early, got really aggravated, and just brute-forced […]

Upper Cowl-to-Wing Flanges

Here we’ve duct taped the upper cowling and sanded the wing surfaces down to the glass where the cowling meets it in preparation for the cowling flanges. This is a 5 BID layup that I wetted wing and the upper cowling, then wetted the glass out on plastic and folded in half and laid on […]

Cowl Joint Flanges

Here we’ve glassed the cowling together at the previous cut line, and glassed where we (accidentally) made the wing holes too big. It’s really almost impossible not to make the whole too big without the template, since the cowling will not go inside of the wings to allow you to mark it. So, you end […]

Cowl Relief Hole for Wings

There is a template for cutting your cowling wing openings. I elected (foolishly) not to use this, since I knew from previous fittings that I wanted to move the cowling prop opening slightly to get a more even spacing around my spinner. DO NOT DO THIS, it is much harder this way, and caused me […]

Oil Access Door

Here we marked where the oil access on the top of the motor is on the cowling, and cut a 5″ hole. Then a 5 BID flange is made behind it in the standard way. Later the inside edge will be made straight with a hinge, and then a Hartwell latch door release will be […]

Firewall Protection

Before the mounts can be installed, the firewall protection (a layer of Nomex covered with stainless steel) needs to be installed. First I created a paper template of the firewall to get the shape correct. Firewall Template Next I made a rigid template out of poster-board to trace to the stainless. Poster-Board Template Then I […]