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Cowl finishing question

Charles in SC

Well Known Member
I have a James cowl and have never seen a Van's cowl in person. I have read about spreading resin all over a cowl and blocksanding it smooth. Is this just a Van's thing? My cowl looks awfully smooth the way it on the outside. On the inside I can see where I might want to do this to seal it. I do not want to add any work if I don't need to.
Thanks in advance!
 
The James cowl is no different than the Van's one when it comes to pin holes.

Recommend you get the gouge sheet from Sam James on how to finish.

Carl
 
Charles, you are talking about two different surfaces.

The outside will have a bunch of very small pinholes that will only show up after it is painted.

To fill these, there are a number of different tricks you can do. I would search "Pin hole fill" and see what suggestions come up.

I mixed up some micro balloons and covered the cowl and then sanded it off. I did this until there were no pinholes left.

On the inside I rough sanded the top and bottom and after cleaning it, I rolled on a mix of resin and acetone. My mixture had the consistency of water. Using a 3" high nap roller worked great. Let it dry between each coat, which takes about 24 hours. I then covered the inside of the lower cowl with aluminum contact paper / heat shield pressed on with a wallpaper seamroller. That will keep the oil out of the lower cowl.
 
The best method to fill the pin holes is to use neat resin scraped in the a very thin steel scraper (as used in auto body shops). Don't add fillers (balloons etc) as they just prevent the resin going into the pin holes. Very little resin will be added so weight gain is minimal. Aim to scrape nearly all resin off as it takes ages to sand, press reasonably firmly on the scraper.

Pete
 
Navy slang:

Gouge: The inside scoop, the skinny, the low-down. Only the information one needs to know in a given situation, with nothing else to waste one's time. Some black shoes say "Live by the gouge, die by the gouge." Aviators say "Live by the gouge, excel by the gouge."​

Thanks, I guess I do not speak fluent Navy although I do know how to tell a ship from a boat.
 
Navy slang:

Gouge: The inside scoop, the skinny, the low-down. Only the information one needs to know in a given situation, with nothing else to waste one's time. Some black shoes say "Live by the gouge, die by the gouge." Aviators say "Live by the gouge, excel by the gouge."​

FYI .. being a Navy kid ... the brown shoes are the aviators and do the really cool stuff. The black shoes sail the boats/ships/yachts/dingies where the brown shoes land. My dad's shoes were honest to God brown!

(any false information was due to early brain washing by the brown shoe clan, YMMV)
 
As always I may be wrong but I have heard some say that the difference between a boat and a ship is that you can put a boat on a ship but you cannot put a ship on a boat. I have also heard it said that a ship is one of those things that flies through the air and has nothing to do with water unless it is on floats.
 
A true ship has at least 3 masts with yardarms. But, they no longer have masts, so they must be motor vessels. OR, a boat heels into the turn, while a ship heels outside the turn.

On to a cowl question - my left inlet ramp touches the prop governor on the RV-10. The plans say to trim it, but won't that create an air hole in the plenum? What have others done?
John
 
....a boat heels into the turn, while a ship heels outside the turn.

Ahhh, definitions that make sense!

On to a cowl question - my left inlet ramp touches the prop governor on the RV-10. The plans say to trim it, but won't that create an air hole in the plenum? What have others done?
John

Take a look at the plans for a 14....soft foam insert.
 
Ships vs boats

A lot of bum gouge flying around. Here is the straight skinny:
Submarines are boats.
Ships are targets.

Simple as that.
Carl
 
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