Michael Burbidge

Well Known Member
I'm just starting to fit my cowl. I'm building an RV-9A with an O-320. I purchased a 2 1/4" prop extension and have installed that along with the ring gear/flywheel. I put the spinner backing plate on the prop extension. The top cowl sticks out in front of the spinner plate about 1 1/2" To make things fit it looks like I will have to trim almost 2" off the aft end of the top cowl. It will be very close to where the honey comb starts in some places. Does this sound right? This doesn't sound right to me. Maybe I have the wrong cowl. The cowl is marked for an RV-6/6A, but I assume that the 9 uses the same cowl.

Thanks,
Michael-
 
Yep, sounds about right. If you'll cleco a couple of pieces of 90 deg angle to the top cowl, on either side of the center "hump", it will support the cowl while they lay on the spinner backplate at about 10:00 and 2:00 o'clock positions, with a 1/4" space between the backplate and the forward edge of the cowl.

Best,
 
Here is what I trimmed off of my 9A cowl. 2 inches is more or less right.
DSCN2723.jpg
 
Btw Mike,

Tin snips work great for trimming the fiberglass. Easier to control and no dust flying around!

;). CJ
 
Careful if it's an old style white RV-6 cowl.

There were two versions, one for the longer 4 inch prop extension, and the so-called CS cowl that allowed for the 2 1/4 inch extension.

The curve at the lower nose is different, I'm not sure if the long one can be cut down to fit a short extension. A call to Vans might be needed.