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Cowling Hinge Lenths?

apkp777

Well Known Member
I am not finding in the prints or instructions how long the cowling hinges are supposed to be? I assume they are cut to fit?

Does anyone have the length of their hinges you can share?

TOP
Firewall LH
Firewall RH
Firewall Lower
Cowl Upper/Lower LH
Cowl Upper/Lower RH
 
I was fooling with some of that this weekend

Tony,

I'm at work so I can't give you the exact measurements but I was doing some preliminary work on the hinges in anticipation of putting on my engine mount.

What I did was hold the bottom cowling against the firewall and make marks on the firewall where the top hit. I also made a mark at the bottom at the firewall where the exhaust recess is to get a feel for the lengths for each side there. I looked back at the rivet callouts for the firewall to see if I was in the ballpark. I used one shorter rivet each side on the bottom firewall row then the callout stated because of the where the recess on my cowling was.

On the side I used a shorter rivet at the most bottom rivet position and didn't allow the hinge down this far. I did this because of the way the skins were all intersecting at that point. On my sides the hinge runs from the rivet above that point to my top mark. I know I will need to trim the hinges later when I fit the top cowling but that got me in the ballpark. I will wait to rivet these in permanently when I get the top cowling fitted. According to plans the hinge that keep the top and bottom cowling together needs to lay a top the side firewall hinge - at least thats what I gleamed from the plans.

For the top cowling at the firewall I plan to use screws and floating nutplates instead of the hinge - similar to the milspec concept - so I haven't done anything there yet.

It looked to me that there isn't much room to rivet these pieces in place, especially the bottom hinges, once the mount is in place so I was trying to be pro-active.

If nobody else chimes in I can get the measurements when I get home this afternoon and submit another post - at least the ones for the bottom cowling.
 
Here's what I got so far

Firewall Passenger side Lower Cowl - 15 5/16
Firewall Pilot side Lower Cowl - 15 3/8
Firewall Passenger side Lower Cowl Bottom - 11 1/2
Firewall Pilot side Lower Cowl Bottom - 11

I will still need to final fit the sides later. These measurements are just for the hinges and I haven't done anything with the pins yet.

Hope this helps.
 
Thanks, Perfect! I don't need the tops yet. They can be installed after the engine mount. I am just trying to install the side and lower hinges before permanently installing the engine mount.
 
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