In an effort to finish as much firewall stuff as possible before attaching the engine, we decided to install the cowl hinges to the firewall before attaching the engine. To give better access to the side and lower cowl hinges we first removed the engine mount and nose wheel. This required lowering the tail (it now looks like a tail dragger!) and removing the engine mount bolts. First the upper hinges and shims were cut and fitted to the firewall with the top skin clecoed in place. These were pre-bent to match the contour of the upper firewall and were tapered to allow the cowl side hinge to fit into the curved hinges. The smaller stainless steel hinge pins were cut and bent for these hinges. A small retainer clip was added to keep these hinge pins in place during flight. The side and bottom hinges were then cut, positioned, and drilled out. They were then deburred and primed and riveted to the firewall. Then the larger stainless hinge pins were cut and bent for these hinges. The bottom hinge pins were left long to allow for the pins to fit into the bottom cowl. The engine mount was then re-installed, torqued, and cotter pins attached. Ready to mount engine!
