Well I'm starting to pay the price for getting too eager towards the end of build (long story)....phase one is complete with both wife and dog smiling from rides and now looking forward to paint prep etc but I have very very limited fiberglas experience.
I have two main issues with my top cowl, looking for advice on how to approach on fixing.
1. The top of the spinner sits about 3/8"-9/16" below the top of the cowl. This isnt due to sag or anything, it was deliberate skipped during the build process as I was overly focused on the spinner/cowl gap & straightness and figured I could grind the top of it down and reshape (and now having second thoughts). The bottom cowl fits fine, I was much more worried about that.
2. I have milspec camloc fasteners around the firewall/cowl (hinge along horiz parting line) and along the top I have some puckering between the top fasteners. In retrospect I should have reinforced the cowl more along the rear and then allowed for the additional thickness, but it wasnt that obvious or noticable until I started flying and sitting there looking at the puckering from the rear......plus I think with gloss paint instead of flat primer it will be more noticeable from the sides.
Of course one option is to start with a new top cowl, but would have to repeat a lot of effort and that may be a good option.
On the first issue I can:
a. fill in the top corner area behind the spinner and start grinding away and then reglass it. (original plan)
b. Make a cut on each side to lower that center portion of the cowl, push it down, and then glass it into the new position. Might need a lot of blending to make it look right. (thinking this may be better plan)
c. Take off the horizontal hinge, and make a small wedge cut that gets larger forward, although thats going to cause issues on the lower camlocs.
On the mild rear puckering, a few ideas-
a. could reinforce the cowl and build it up, and perhaps bend my camloc retaining tabs down slighty. Having it uniformly a little thicker might look OK and I could possibly put some microballoons on the front top fuselage to blend it better.
b. somehow cut slits to take up the puckering, and then repair. This just feels wrong......
Looking for ideas/advice before the power tools come out........!
Tim
I have two main issues with my top cowl, looking for advice on how to approach on fixing.
1. The top of the spinner sits about 3/8"-9/16" below the top of the cowl. This isnt due to sag or anything, it was deliberate skipped during the build process as I was overly focused on the spinner/cowl gap & straightness and figured I could grind the top of it down and reshape (and now having second thoughts). The bottom cowl fits fine, I was much more worried about that.
2. I have milspec camloc fasteners around the firewall/cowl (hinge along horiz parting line) and along the top I have some puckering between the top fasteners. In retrospect I should have reinforced the cowl more along the rear and then allowed for the additional thickness, but it wasnt that obvious or noticable until I started flying and sitting there looking at the puckering from the rear......plus I think with gloss paint instead of flat primer it will be more noticeable from the sides.
Of course one option is to start with a new top cowl, but would have to repeat a lot of effort and that may be a good option.
On the first issue I can:
a. fill in the top corner area behind the spinner and start grinding away and then reglass it. (original plan)
b. Make a cut on each side to lower that center portion of the cowl, push it down, and then glass it into the new position. Might need a lot of blending to make it look right. (thinking this may be better plan)
c. Take off the horizontal hinge, and make a small wedge cut that gets larger forward, although thats going to cause issues on the lower camlocs.
On the mild rear puckering, a few ideas-
a. could reinforce the cowl and build it up, and perhaps bend my camloc retaining tabs down slighty. Having it uniformly a little thicker might look OK and I could possibly put some microballoons on the front top fuselage to blend it better.
b. somehow cut slits to take up the puckering, and then repair. This just feels wrong......
Looking for ideas/advice before the power tools come out........!
Tim