Brief Description: fitting cowl and mounting strips
First, I worked on getting the cowl to fit well. I decided to make the front fit, then do whatever is needed to make the back fit at the firewall. I think I can add material to the back of the cowling easier that I can modify the front.
Once I had the front end aligned, I drilled 3 holes in each inlet to use clecos to fix the front of the cowl. It is difficult to tell exactly how the rear end will work out because the sides of the lower cowling are a bit bowed out. Some adjustment will still be necessary to finalize the fit of the upper cowl aft end.
A package from Wicks arrived containing sheet aluminum that I ordered to fabricate the mounting strips for the camloc fasteners on the sides at the firewall. I cut two pieces to size and drilled them onto the fuselage with Martza clecoing for me.
I finalized the measurement issues regarding the spacing of the camloc fasteners. Here is a description:
Determine the center of the airframe at the firewall top. Place a mark there. Measure out from that mark on each side of the aircraft along the firewall. The top portion of the firewall will have fasteners spaced 3 1/8 inch apart until you get to the fastener located a 25 inches. That will be the last fastener before you get to the cowl split line which is located at 25 3/4 inches.
After the fastener located at 25 inches, the next fastener is located at 26 1/2 inches. That is the first fastener below the cowl split line. These fasteners are 1 1/2 inches apart because each of these fasteners is at the aft corner of the cowl, a critical location where the pressure is greater than in other areas.
After the fastener located at 26 1/2 inches, the subsequent fasteners are located 3 3/8 inches apart until the bottom side fastener which is located at 40 inches. The reason that the interval is 3 3/8 inches in this area is that the bottom fastener is located as far down the side as possible and just before the bottom engine mount.
This method provides even spacing on the top at 3 1/8 in., ev
