Another long day today, I cut the slot in the bottom of the cowl for the nose gear leg and have it all ready to trim to the fuselage.
I started my slot at 9”; this is what is needed to clear the front of the leg if you measure from the firewall forward. What I failed to account for is you need a longer slot because the cowl needs to angle up to clear the spinner. I finally made it up to 15” and even at this the cowl rubs the spinner a bit as it goes past. I will wait till I have it trimmed for the fuselage before I cut more.
I cut the 6” hinge sections for the bottom but in reading the plans it only gives a method to stow the hinge pins for the RV-8. When I looked at VAF to see how others did this for the RV-8A I learned some good ideas but I also discovered that many have had some of the eyes in the hinge break off in the lower section. They universally say to just install a thick plate and go with screws. I decided to go this route but will use Camloc fasteners instead of screws and nut plates. They are expensive ($7 each) but I will not have washers and screws to lose when the cowling comes off. I plane 3 on each side.
After making the plates I re-installed the top cowl and strapped the lower cowl to ready for marking the fuselage trim line. I have a pretty decent fit from what I can tell, the lower half does not nest into the upper half very well, and the shapes just don’t match up very well. It would almost be better to cut the flange off the lower cowl and just butt the halves up but I will continue per the plans. There will be some filling needed to get a nice even finish at the front.
Meaured for 9" should have run the lines out at the get go!
15" slot, good part is leg sits evenliy in the slot so I found the center!
