ArVeeNiner
Well Known Member
I wanted to document on VAF how I installed the oil door in my Sam James cowl. I was a bit confused as to how to do it and after a post on VAF, some nice people got me going on the right track.
So, first of all, the Sam James cowl oil door is a bit different than the Van's. I believe the Van's cowl has a hole already cut out of the top cowl for this purpose. It also has a nice flange for the door to sit on. Finally, it comes with a door. The Sam James cowl has none of the above. The expectation is that you cut out the hole for the door perfectly, save the cutout, and make that your door. Easy as pie!!! Uh, no way, not that easy. In fact, this is what the SJ instructions say:
"(19) Mark and cut oil access door. Use a coping saw blade and a fine tooth hacksaw blade. Pull them backwards with a small pair of lock grip pliers. Minimum size for the door should be 4 1/2? x 5?. Be careful because the piece you cut out will be the door."
That's it! Not much to go on here eh?
No way, no how, are you going to be able to cut out the opening so perfectly that you can use the cutout piece without modifications to make it fit. Well, as expected, you end up with a very rough cut that you have to clean up quite a bit. See my post at http://www.vansairforce.com/community/showthread.php?t=47722
The trouble is, after sanding both the door and the cutout to make them both pretty, the gap between them ends up excessive. So, you have to decide what your plan of attack is before you start cutting.
First of all, where do you cut the hole? There was a circle on my cowl in the area where the door was to go. I assumed, correctly I might add, that this was your "bullseye". You want to make sure that you make this point the center of your door so that it will be in the proper place.
How big do you cut the hole? I varied from the SJ instructions here and shot for roughly a 5" X 5" hole. I then cut out a piece of paper this size to make sure I can get my fat hand in there. Yep, no problem.
Next decide if you really want to use the cutout as the door or do you just want to make yourself a new door from the get go. I found a website from a builder who recommended making a new door. I didn't want to do that right off the bat. I thought I'd try to use the cutout as the door and if all else failed, I could still make the door by laying up some fiberglass over the cut out taped into position. You could cut to the chase and lay up a new door outside of the uncut cowl I suppose. I'm going to just document what I did which was use the cutout as the door.
OK, so mark the hole, pray, cut the hole, sand the opening and the door then realize the hole is much bigger than the door. Not a problem. This is where I turned to those that have gone before me here on VAF. I got a lot of good tips and those helped me through this.
So, you need to make the flange that the door sits on. The way I did that was to lay up 4 layers of fairly heavy fiberglass cloth around the perimeter of the hole. I used the cloth that came in the SJ box.
Turn the cowl upside down and tape the door in the middle of the cutout. Tape the edges of the door, tape the inside of the door, tape the outside of the door...tape everywhere you don't want the epoxy to stick. Sorry, I don't have pictures of this part. Use plastic tape like packing tape. I have some blue plastic tape that I?ve been using with good success.
So, what you're going to do here is to make a slightly thickened mix of epoxy and drip it down between the door and the cowl. You're making the gap between the two much smaller than the mile is currently is. Got it? I put a few pinches of milled glass and a pinch of Cab-O-Sill in the mix. Now, the concern I had was how was I going to ensure that I had the proper gap? I didn't want to fill it up and leave no gap at all between the door and the edge of the hole. Well, I kicked around the idea of just using thick tape around the perimeter but it wasn't all that thick. Then I came up with the bright idea of taping safety wire around the perimeter of the door. All that did was leave a safety wire sized void in the epoxy! Well, it turns out that you don?t have to do anything at all! Just tape the perimeter of the door and fill that gap up then sand the door down to give you the proper gap!!! I let out a big ?duh? when I figured that one out.
So, back to dribbling the epoxy in the gap: fill in the gap. If you don?t put enough epoxy in the gap you might get a couple of voids like I did that you?re going to have to fill later. Not a big deal.
Now, lay up your fiberglass for the flange around the hole. If you have the hidden hinge like I do, you can make the flange go the entire perimeter of the hole. I cut quite wide pieces of fiberglass to put around the perimeter until the 5? x 5? hole became something less than a 3? X 3? hole. Wet out the glass inside a large Ziploc bag then cut it out to the size you want. See the posted referenced above for how to do this. Lay up something like 4 layers. This could take a couple of nights or a couple of hours. Now go to bed wondering if you will actually be able to remove the door in the morning or if you have now just succeeded in epoxying the door to the cowl. Lose some sleep over this like I did!
The next morning, jump out of bed bright and early and rush to the garage. Spend 20 minutes trying to remove the door from cowl. Just when you?re about to give up, off it comes. Now spend a little time filling in those air bubbles I was telling you about. Do some sanding. Now take a nap because you didn't sleep that well the night before, worrying about this.
You want to match the shape of the corners of the door with the corners of the epoxy fill as close a possible so it looks good. I used one of those diamond bits that I got from the flea market in my Dremel at the slowest speed possible. Pretty easy if you have a steady hand. Use files, sand paper, Dremel, whatever until you like the way the edge of the door and the cut out looks.
Now you can cut down the flange if you want. I made mine about ?? wide. I used the Dremel with a cutting disc but it was smoking the fiberglass. I then used my $39 Multi Tool from Harbor Freight to make the cuts. http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=67256 Oh yea baby, that?s the ticket.
OK, stand by for Part 2, now improved with pictures!
So, first of all, the Sam James cowl oil door is a bit different than the Van's. I believe the Van's cowl has a hole already cut out of the top cowl for this purpose. It also has a nice flange for the door to sit on. Finally, it comes with a door. The Sam James cowl has none of the above. The expectation is that you cut out the hole for the door perfectly, save the cutout, and make that your door. Easy as pie!!! Uh, no way, not that easy. In fact, this is what the SJ instructions say:
"(19) Mark and cut oil access door. Use a coping saw blade and a fine tooth hacksaw blade. Pull them backwards with a small pair of lock grip pliers. Minimum size for the door should be 4 1/2? x 5?. Be careful because the piece you cut out will be the door."
That's it! Not much to go on here eh?
No way, no how, are you going to be able to cut out the opening so perfectly that you can use the cutout piece without modifications to make it fit. Well, as expected, you end up with a very rough cut that you have to clean up quite a bit. See my post at http://www.vansairforce.com/community/showthread.php?t=47722
The trouble is, after sanding both the door and the cutout to make them both pretty, the gap between them ends up excessive. So, you have to decide what your plan of attack is before you start cutting.
First of all, where do you cut the hole? There was a circle on my cowl in the area where the door was to go. I assumed, correctly I might add, that this was your "bullseye". You want to make sure that you make this point the center of your door so that it will be in the proper place.
How big do you cut the hole? I varied from the SJ instructions here and shot for roughly a 5" X 5" hole. I then cut out a piece of paper this size to make sure I can get my fat hand in there. Yep, no problem.
Next decide if you really want to use the cutout as the door or do you just want to make yourself a new door from the get go. I found a website from a builder who recommended making a new door. I didn't want to do that right off the bat. I thought I'd try to use the cutout as the door and if all else failed, I could still make the door by laying up some fiberglass over the cut out taped into position. You could cut to the chase and lay up a new door outside of the uncut cowl I suppose. I'm going to just document what I did which was use the cutout as the door.
OK, so mark the hole, pray, cut the hole, sand the opening and the door then realize the hole is much bigger than the door. Not a problem. This is where I turned to those that have gone before me here on VAF. I got a lot of good tips and those helped me through this.
So, you need to make the flange that the door sits on. The way I did that was to lay up 4 layers of fairly heavy fiberglass cloth around the perimeter of the hole. I used the cloth that came in the SJ box.
Turn the cowl upside down and tape the door in the middle of the cutout. Tape the edges of the door, tape the inside of the door, tape the outside of the door...tape everywhere you don't want the epoxy to stick. Sorry, I don't have pictures of this part. Use plastic tape like packing tape. I have some blue plastic tape that I?ve been using with good success.
So, what you're going to do here is to make a slightly thickened mix of epoxy and drip it down between the door and the cowl. You're making the gap between the two much smaller than the mile is currently is. Got it? I put a few pinches of milled glass and a pinch of Cab-O-Sill in the mix. Now, the concern I had was how was I going to ensure that I had the proper gap? I didn't want to fill it up and leave no gap at all between the door and the edge of the hole. Well, I kicked around the idea of just using thick tape around the perimeter but it wasn't all that thick. Then I came up with the bright idea of taping safety wire around the perimeter of the door. All that did was leave a safety wire sized void in the epoxy! Well, it turns out that you don?t have to do anything at all! Just tape the perimeter of the door and fill that gap up then sand the door down to give you the proper gap!!! I let out a big ?duh? when I figured that one out.
So, back to dribbling the epoxy in the gap: fill in the gap. If you don?t put enough epoxy in the gap you might get a couple of voids like I did that you?re going to have to fill later. Not a big deal.
Now, lay up your fiberglass for the flange around the hole. If you have the hidden hinge like I do, you can make the flange go the entire perimeter of the hole. I cut quite wide pieces of fiberglass to put around the perimeter until the 5? x 5? hole became something less than a 3? X 3? hole. Wet out the glass inside a large Ziploc bag then cut it out to the size you want. See the posted referenced above for how to do this. Lay up something like 4 layers. This could take a couple of nights or a couple of hours. Now go to bed wondering if you will actually be able to remove the door in the morning or if you have now just succeeded in epoxying the door to the cowl. Lose some sleep over this like I did!
The next morning, jump out of bed bright and early and rush to the garage. Spend 20 minutes trying to remove the door from cowl. Just when you?re about to give up, off it comes. Now spend a little time filling in those air bubbles I was telling you about. Do some sanding. Now take a nap because you didn't sleep that well the night before, worrying about this.
You want to match the shape of the corners of the door with the corners of the epoxy fill as close a possible so it looks good. I used one of those diamond bits that I got from the flea market in my Dremel at the slowest speed possible. Pretty easy if you have a steady hand. Use files, sand paper, Dremel, whatever until you like the way the edge of the door and the cut out looks.
Now you can cut down the flange if you want. I made mine about ?? wide. I used the Dremel with a cutting disc but it was smoking the fiberglass. I then used my $39 Multi Tool from Harbor Freight to make the cuts. http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=67256 Oh yea baby, that?s the ticket.
OK, stand by for Part 2, now improved with pictures!
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