I plan to detail most of the cowl fitting as I found very few websites but I have gleaned a lot of information from the VAF Forum.
ORDER. Due to the time of year I wanted to do the cowl before the electrics to do my sanding outside. The only problem is that the top skin is not riveted so how to fit the cowl? The answer from VAF Forum was ultra simple really - cleco the hinge/firewall/baggage strip/tops skin from inside the engine compartment until you have trimmed the aft edge and then put the cleocs back as normal. Post note - works a treat
HINGES. Decided to go down this route as they are light and simple. Downside is that there have been reports of hinges cracking. The supplied hinges are rolled and there must be some stress during that process - to help minimise the chance of a crack I used a very small round file and gave three strokes in each corner to remove the right angle - this is an RVAtor tip.
Made the hinges as per plans and riveted the sides and lower ones. I plan to fit the upper hinge pins from outside the cowl using an idea from RVAtor as I don't have the room inside due to the inverted oil seperator tank - I also think this is a very neat idea. More details as the cowl log progresses.
SPINNER. Fortunately when Craig Catto made my prop he also cut and drilled my spinner, which I didn't ask for so I got this free! What a time saver! Bolted the back plate using some 22mm copper couplers as spacers with the short 1/2" bolts supplied in the extension kit that came with my prop. After the photo was taken I sanded the spinner to be flush with the back plate as the protrusion was not even all the way round.
