[Guy Prevost]

I've searched all over for this, and still haven't found an answer.

To start with, I need to make it clear that I have the new PINK cowl and it may have some other differences, I'm not sure.

I have cut the front edge of the bottom cowl back enough so that I can bring the two halves together. The cut was made along the blue line in the photo below. The little tick mark 1/8" below that is in line with the lip around the spinner bowl.

I understand that I need to trim the top cowling around the spinner bowl to make the spinner bowl round. To do that, it looks like I'm going to have to trim nearly 3/4" off of the sides of the top cowl too. Have others had to do this, or am I missing something?

If the sides of the top do get trimmed, do you just make the cut parallel with the original edge, or do you taper it to some point in back?

Thanks,
Guy

 

[Rick S.]

I just finished mine on the -10 and it sounds very similar. I trimmed the forward sides only enough to get the bottom cowl to overlap the top. Take a little at a time until you can get the bottom aft part of the cowl flush with the bottom of the fuselage. I found that once the bottom of the bottom cowl was fit to the fuse everything else started to come together. Once I had all the top, bottom and sides fitted to the fuse I used the bottom cowl to mark the top. I did sand the bottom cowl seam enough to get a nice straight line before using it to mark the top.

 

[Rene Bubberman]

Wow, what a color!

Besides that, cowl fitting is a tricky business. Your most impotant tools are a long wooden plank with sandpaper and loads of patience. Here's how I did it: http://websites.expercraft.com/PHVII/index.php?q=log_entry&log_id=8194 and beyond. Came out very nice. Hope it helps a bit.

 

[Geoff]

Match the front - leave the sides for now

I've searched all over for this, and still haven't found an answer.

To start with, I need to make it clear that I have the new PINK cowl and it may have some other differences, I'm not sure.

I have cut the front edge of the bottom cowl back enough so that I can bring the two halves together. The cut was made along the blue line in the photo below. The little tick mark 1/8" below that is in line with the lip around the spinner bowl.

I understand that I need to trim the top cowling around the spinner bowl to make the spinner bowl round. To do that, it looks like I'm going to have to trim nearly 3/4" off of the sides of the top cowl too. Have others had to do this, or am I missing something?

If the sides of the top do get trimmed, do you just make the cut parallel with the original edge, or do you taper it to some point in back?

Thanks,
Guy

You'll have to trim the sides and the front of both the top and bottom cowling pieces.

You need to get the front of it to line up before you mess around with the sides. Obviously you'll need to cut a little bit of the sides -- maybe a couple inches back from the front just to get around the outside corner -- in order to bring the halves together at the front. But leave the rest of the sides long and overlapping. You'll trim them later.

When you do trim them them later, arbitrarily pick one of the halves and trim parallel to the original edge. Once you do that, trim the other half so they just meet. I tried to do it so I had the same amount of fiberglass outside of the honeycomb material on both halves, but it didn't end up quite right. There's a lip on the inside of the edge, so you'll need at least enough room to install the hinge. Also, I tried to do it so the halves split exactly in the middle of the air inlet holes in the front. I'm pretty sure I didn't trim the sides until everything else was done -- the front was lined up and both halves were trimmed and drilled at the aft end.

You've probably already looked at the cowl section on my website (http://home.comcast.net/~n70ge), but here's one of the pictures. In this shot, the cowl halves are flush at the front and you can see the sides overlapping for almost their entire length. The top has been trimmed and drilled at the back but is untrimmed on the sides. It is supported in the front by a block of wood on top of the engine. The bottom hasn't been drilled at all and is only held on by the red strap.