I spent a few hours applying polyester glazing filler to imperfections and sanding it smooth. My parts were very high quality with just a couple of pinholes. There was a large "scratch" in the upper cowl, and Glenn had the same thing in his so I would expect it is something in the mold. The filler made short work of fixing this.
I am not an expert in body work, and during a past project I had an experienced friend recommend a single part filler that turned to a chalky powder about two years later and ultimately ended up in a complete strip down and re-paint. I ONLY use two part fillers now. I also seem to prefer the green stuff. The auto body shops I talked with only had the red, and I finally found the green stuff at my local fleet and farm supply store. I am sure the red would work fine, but I think the green cures a little harder and I was needing to build up some edges around the oil door.
I talked with the guys at Rocky Mountain Kitplanes and Glenn about finishing the cowl and they both recommended a sandable primer to cover the minor imperfectons and hide the weave pattern. I checked into the Dupont paint line I am using a and found a price tag of 400.00 per gallon. My supplier recommended "Slick Sand" for 24.00 per quart, and that is what I went with. The Tech sheets specify a 2.0 mm or larger tip, but the largest I had available was 1.8 and it worked fine. I used almost exactly one quart, with 2 coats. Sanding was pretty easy starting with 180, then 320, and some touch up with 400. Sanding probably amounted to a couple of hours. All of the weave pattern as well as all my filler areas are 100% covered.
