Brief Description: Dip Stick and Oil Fill Access Door
Work on the dipstick and oil fill access door started today. The location of the dipstick was measured from the firewall and aircraft centerline. This location was transferred to the top of the cowling.
Currently the oil fill point is too far from the dipstick to reasonably use a single access door, but I may add a fill spigot on the top plate of the engine in the future. So, the opening I am planning is located and sized to access both points with this single door.
The outline of the door was drawn with solid lines, and the outline of the backer plate was drawn with dashed lines on the top of the cowling. See photos #1 & #2. The location of the backer plate was transferred to the back side of the cowling by drilling four #40 holes at the corners of the backer plate.
The door will be 5-1/2” square, and cut directly from the cowling. It will sit on the backer plate that extends inward 3/16” around the perimeter of the opening. Since this backer plate must mate with the underside of the cowling, the first order of business is to layup the fiberglass backer on the underside of the cowling to insure it matches the contour precisely.
The outer perimeter of the backer was marked on the underside of the cowling, then the area was covered with packaging tape to prevent the layup from adhering to the cowling. Enough fiberglass strips were cut to layup the four sides of the backer, four layers thick. (Continued in the next post.)
