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New cowl fit

papamike

Well Known Member
Hi everybody,

Just starting to fit my cowl. I'm using the Van's technique to fit the cowl without the prop installed. I cut spacers to 2 1/8" since I'm using a CS prop. Backing plate and the spacers are bolted into place.

My cowl is a recent one, meaning I ordered and received it not too long ago. It's pink on the inside and grey on the outside. What's interesting is that if I have the upper cowl spaced 1/4" behind the backing plate, the top aft edge of the cowl is right at the edge of the firewall. Looks like I may only have to trim the lower corners.

While this may seem like good news, I want to make sure I have everything set up right. I thought I'd have some overlap on the aft edge that I'd have to trim off. It also makes it more difficult because I have very little space to temporarily cleco the cowl in place so I can start on the lower cowl.

2IGY6Pv


2HpKHvN
 
Looks like the nose-end of the cowl is sitting low in the photo. Once that spinner is on there, you'll want/need to make sure the cowl is centered around the prop/spinner circle. Have you already ensured that? If you need to raise the nose end of the cowl, that upper/center portion of the trailing edge of the uncut cowl is going to move aft pretty quickly. Also, have you put spacer blocks in place, measured the elevation and then clamped the cowl to the nose to ensure it's exactly positioned?
 
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I know it's a little low still, but I don't even have the 1/4" gap yet. If I do that. the aft end is right on the edge. I suppose that's better than being too short.
It just seems to me that maybe this cowl was made closer to a possible final size...
 
Pete, I cant see your pictures so Im not sure if I have your questions correct. One thing I did was cut a piece of 3/4" plywood ina circle about 1/2" larger than the prop back plate with "bow ties" extending out from the circle over the inlets and used short hardware bolts to bolt it over the backing plate. This gave me a fixed place I could go to. I used a piece of foam core board 1/4" as a spacer so I could glass right up to it. I have the James cowl with the round inlets, but it should work for all cowls.

Good luck with the fitting. It is a bear.
 
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