I'm pretty much following the plans and notes I've gleaned. So far (knock on wood) it's been going pretty well and I'm pretty happy with the fit.
One thing I noticed I hadn't heard mentioned - the top hinges had a fair bit of slop in them after I drilled the first couple of holes (I started on the inboard side of the short hinge on the passenger side). This is due to the fact they have you use a .90 stainless hinge pin instead of the provided (and larger) aluminum pin. At this point I'm trying for the closest fit possible. I know folks have said they are leaving as much as 1/16" gap for paint. I'm polishing (although I'll probably paint the cowl) and for now want as close a fit as I can get.
First thing I did was finish fitting the hinges to the aft edge of the top cowl. At first I was going to just try match drilling by marking the cowl and drilling both hinge and cowl at the same time. The more I looked at that the more I didn't like it - too many variables - too much chance of not enough edge distance and I felt like I'd probably end up with a goofy rivet line.
I finally decided to drill the hinges first, then figure out how to match them to the cowl. At first I thought I'd hold them tight and back drill a few placement holes from the inside, then remove and finish drilling.
I finally decided if I backlit the hinges I could drill from outside, and that ended up working really well.
To make sure I had the fit I wanted, I reached in and pulled the hinge tight before I drilled each hole. Once I'd done a few the gap was pretty much closed.
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| From Finish Kit |
Cowling backlit from the inside with a small battery powered trouble light. Only missed one hole slightly. The rest were perfect. Worked great.
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| From Finish Kit |
Had to cut out the oil cooler door so I could install the hinge pins. At first I thought I'd made the fit *way* too tight, cause I could hardly move the pins, much less put them all the way in. I polished them some, beveled the pointy end a bit to make it slide in better, beveled the hinges themselves some, boelubed, and tried again. After about the 3rd time they were actually pretty easy to do.
Having done this does give me pause regarding installing anything high up on the firewall. Have to pay attention that nothing goes there that would interfere with installing the hinge pins. You do need some room, and don't want anything sharp (like a forest of grounds similar to what B&C sells) that would rip your hand to shreds if you slipped.
Top cowl match drilled and pins in place.
Pretty happy with the fit.
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| From Finish Kit |
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| From Finish Kit |
Pretty happy with the fit.
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| From Finish Kit |
There is one spot on the aft edge, pilot's side that is a bit proud of the skin. I think this must be where they mention a .032 shim on the plans. Easily addressed later before I rivet everything.
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| From Finish Kit |
Slid the bottom into place to see if it's level and looks reasonable. Not bad.
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| From Finish Kit |
The inlets still don't match very well. The next thing I did was trim these up some. The lower cowl had a lot of extra material that was preventing a good fit at the outboard sides of the inlets.
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| From Finish Kit |
I played with everything quite a while and finally decided (as per the plans) that the next step was to trim just the bottom without touching the sides. That would allow it to ride up to near where it will sit when finished. Trimming the sides prior to that would result in either under or over cutting.
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| From Finish Kit |
Measuring the bottom of the cowl to cut it. I just used 1 1/2" masking tape that was aligned with the edge of the skin, then measured from the exposed edge inward 1 1/2" (it was actually 1 7/16" - glad I checked it). I under trimmed the line *very* slightly, then sanded to the line til it fit well. There is a lot of putting on, measuring and marking, then taking it back off and sanding some more.
One other thing that might help folks if they are working on this alone. As you can see I'm using a long cargo strap to secure it. To be honest this was a real pain to horse around and try to hold everything in place by myself.
I had an ancient backless office chair that I've used for various things. By adjusting the height with the screw, I was able to use it by sliding it up the snorkel after holding the cowl in place. This ended up being *way* easier. The chair is just woven, so there isn't any risk of scratching. It would be worth creating something similar if you didn't have something like that. Saved a ton of time once I decided to use it.
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| From Finish Kit |
Drilling the hinges to the lower firewall.
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| From Finish Kit |
Used the same backlighting technique to drill the hinges to the cowl. Since this pin is full size, I didn't have the slop issue I had with the top.
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| From Finish Kit |
Once the bottom was done I started on the sides. Again, measure, cut undersize, fit, measure some more, sand/trim, repeat. I ended up using sheet metal shears on the side since I didn't want all the dust from my Dremel tool. The shears cut very easily and pretty accurately.
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| From Finish Kit |
Working through some issues. I think this bottom corner on the passenger side will have to be filled and sanded to fit correctly, but won't be a big deal. Everything else fits really well.
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| From Finish Kit |
Starting on the side hinges. Once these are done and it's nailed down, I'll trim the sides to length and fit the side hinges.
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| From Finish Kit |
