Brief Description: Fab lower hinges, trim lower cowl aft
I drew a line 2” back from the edge of the firewall on the bottom fuse skin, around the curve and up the sides of the fuse. Then, I put the lower cowl in position—clecoed two places inside the nose and taped the lower cowl to the upper. I ran a strap around the cowlings near the aft portion and tightened up. I transferred the 2” lines on the bottom of the fuse to the lower cowl. I removed the lower cowl and cut off the bottom aft portion to just outside my lines. I cut some hinge pieces for the bottom attachment and clamped them to the fuse skin. After getting them positioned where I wanted, I used an angle drill to match drill thru the f/w and lower skin into the hinge piece. Removed and deburred, then machine c/s the hinges that will rivet to the firewall/fuse skin. I set up my pneumatic squeezer and re-dimpled the holes in the firewall/fuse skin—had to scrap away some proseal so the hinge would nest in the dimples. I also cut some .032 shims for the upper cowl. I removed the hinges from the upper cowl and deburred. Then, I re-installed the upper cowl—I want to get the 1/16” paint gap finalized before adding the shim strips. I had much difficulty getting the hinge pins in the upper cowl. I finally removed the cowl and curved the pins to sorta match the curve of the cowl—then I was able to get the pins in—they are not super tight, but difficult to get around the last several inches of the curve. Arrg! Looks like I still need more gap at the aft—so tomorrow I’ll remove and sand some more.