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Dave's RV-7A Builder's Log
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Date: 11-22-2014
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Number of Hours: 2.00
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Manual Reference:
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Brief Description: Cowl fitting
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Today the goal was to see how much I could get done on the cowling, as that has been a bit of a challenge for me the last few times I’ve worked on it. The part that has caused the biggest headache has been how to make the front fit together correctly. The builder’s manual implies that there is plenty of overlap for trimming, and if this were so, I’d be much further along than I am because I would just clamp the front edges together and work from there. Unfortunately, I’m convinced that Van’s has a new cowl supplier, and this supplier’s cowls have very little…or no…excess. Without a little room for error, I have been hesitant to trim anything, but today I decided to dive in.
I started by sanding the front flanges a little bit to get the best fit I could. Once done with that, I drilled a hole in each side of the inboard inlet and clecoed the nose together. With a little additional sanding, I was able to get an ok fit, so I took them apart and measured the slot on the bottom cowl for the nose gear. Out with the Dremel and cut away. With the lower cowl now slotted, and a point of connection in the front, my theory was that I should be able to attach the cowl and start actually fitting it to the fuselage. Aside from the fact that wrestling two large pieces of flimsy fiberglass isn’t very easy, I was actually able to get it onto the fuselage and keep it in place. Credit the generous use of duct tape for part of that.
Next up is trimming and drilling the bottom and sides.
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Nose fits together well enough
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Nose gear slot marked...
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...and cut
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