This entry covers 3/22 - 3/24. We trimmed the upper cowling and installed on fuselage. We had originally planned on using the Skybolt fasteners around the firewall, but the newer cowling coming from Vans, do not have enough flat area to install the firewall retainers provided by Skybolt. We had to remove all of the retainers and install the 1/8" hinge per the manual. This involved drilling out a bunch of rivets. In addition, the manual calls for 1/8" spacing to the prop hub, we decided to make the spacing a little large to make the cowling easier to remove and to account for any engine mount sag later on. We used a gap of a little over 3/16". Bob Condrey loaned us a un-servicable prop hub to mount the spinner and the backplate. This saved a lot of time we would have spent having to mount the prop.
