Did some more work on the engine cowl today, and it's now starting to take shape. I got the bottom cowl trimmed to the stage that I could match drill it to the side hinge sections, and the brackets I fitted to the lower firewall flange.
The instructions simply say to match drill to the hinge, however this is much easier said than done. The hinge, being a hinge, will just want to push away from the drill, and there's no way to get your hands inside as you still need the top cowl in place at this stage. I ended up shaping a small block of wood to jam between the hinge and the lower corner of the engine mount. This kept the hinge firmly enough in place to allow me to drill holes and cleco. Once I got a few cleco's in then all was good.
Anyway, with the bottom cowl fitted I then set about some fine sanding work to get the horizontal edges lined up a bit better. Still a little bit left to work on, but getting pretty close. Next step will be to attach the hinge pieces to the fibreglass cowl with resin and rivets.....but that's for next time.
My fabricated timber block to help hold the hinge in place while drilling
The top and bottom cowl now starting to look the goods
