The fiberglass spinner extended past the rear backing plate by about 1/8”. I traced a blue line around the inside of the spinner and also around a portion of one of the blade cutouts that didn’t have enough clearance. I removed the spinner and sanded down to the lines. Replaced and checked—now the back of the spinner is flush with the backing plate. Time to start the cowling—a task I’m not real excited about. I poured over the plans and the manual for a long time along as well as spending a great deal of time on other builder’s logs and the VAF site. I started with cutting out the oil filler door. Manual says to cut to the scribe lines—hmm, big surprise--there aren’t any. I marked off what I think will be an adequate flange and used my dremel to remove the center—then sanded the edges smooth. I drew a line on the top and side skins 2” back from the edge of the flange, then set the top cowling in place. When (if) I get the cowling where I think it should go, I’ll mark forward 2” from these lines and that should allow the top cowl to butt against the forward skin. I used some long carriage bolts and some brackets to hold the front of the cowling up level with the spinner and slid the cowl forward to make a ¼” gap between it and the spinner. I’ll fiddle with this some more before I commit to cutting the rear of cowling off.—
