Cowling 7 vs. 8

[Jerry Cochran]

Assuming the 7 and 8 cowlings are quite different, I'd like to find how hard it would be to modify a 7 to fit an 8. Assuming a person has OK fibreglass skills that isI think the forward ends must be similar, what about the firewall end? Anyone?

Thanks,

Jerry

[Scott Hersha]

My first thought is why? Assuming there is a good reason, I think you would have to be comfortable with creating a mold of some kind, and then deal with grafting sandwiched honeycomb material to make it conform to the new profile after hacking away most of the aft portion of the -7 cowl. It definitely can be done, but if your time is worth anything - $ - selling your 7 cowl and buying a new 8 cowl might be worth considering. Fiberglass is relatively easy, but time consuming. Good luck with your decision.

[skylor]

Originally Posted by Jerry Cochran

Assuming the 7 and 8 cowlings are quite different, I'd like to find how hard it would be to modify a 7 to fit an 8. Assuming a person has OK fibreglass skills that isI think the forward ends must be similar, what about the firewall end? Anyone?

Thanks,

Jerry

The -7 and -8 cowls are very different. The -8 firewall is much narrower than the -7 and the -8 has a longer firewall to spinner dimension. The -8 cowl gets narrower from front to back, while the -7 cowl gets wider from front to back. The two are so different that modifying the 7 cowl to fit the 8 wouldn't leave much of the original cowl left when you're finished.

Skylor
RV-8

[drill_and_buck]

I was challenged enough fitting an RV-8 cowl to an RV-8. It required a lot of work to achieve a good fit and finish.

I can't image the work and curses required to get an RV-7 cowl to fit properly on an RV-8. It might be easier to build one from scratch than to try to get an RV-7 cowl to fit an RV-8.

[Jerry Cochran]

I asked is that a fella building an 8 inquired if my surplus snoutless -7 cowl
could be made to fit his injected -8. Sure, if you want to find someone with f-glass skills. Just as I thought, a lotta work. I remember spending days getting my tail fairing to fit.

J