Cowl install-is this right?

[Gripdana]

I started on the cowl today. I made the prop hub fitting according to the plans and mounted it. Then I cut the hole for the prop hub and gear leg in the right cowl half. I test fit the right side and I need to start trimming the sides and bottom. The shape of the top has me concerned. It sits way up in the air. Is this common? Will it "pull" in as I get the cowl trimmed and fasteners installed. I bought the cowl last year and it was shipped to me and sat in my shed since then. Could it have taken another shape while shipping and storage?
Any thoughts or advise. All the logs I looked at people comment on hoe the cowl "sucked" to do.

[rizzz]

Yes it will improve as you start trimming, at least in my experience.
You can see the upper seam in the cowl currently sits about 1/2 inch below the seam in the forward fuselage side wall, this is the cause of the top wanting to stick out.
As you start trimming the bottom and side of the cowl, you'll notice this seam move up, eventually aligning itself with the seam in the forward fuselage sidewall. You'll be able to push it down much more easily when that happens.
Prepare yourself for hours of frustration though, at least, again, in my experience. The cowl installation is so far the only bit in my project I did not enjoy at all.

[Fastcapy]

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[Gripdana]

Thanks. I'll start up again in the morning.

[Gripdana]

I can't get the top to lay down. Everything else lines up great. I did the hinge. The sides look good. When I press down on the top of the cowl there is tons of pressure everywhere else. I screwed up the fiberglass thinking I could do a relief cut but that did not work. Maybe the only thing to do is to do the top/bottom split cowl mod? This is very frustrating.

[rizzz]

Hi Dana,
It looks to me like your cowl is still sitting lower than mine was, I trimmed the bottom quite a bit further to get the top to move upward (it is counterintuitive bu that's how it works)
Have a look at how mine turned out, particularly notice the bottom alignment with the fuselage and the top seam alignment with the fuselage):
http://www.mykitlog.com/users/display_l ... 8118&row=3
http://www.mykitlog.com/users/display_l ... 8119&row=1
http://www.mykitlog.com/users/display_l ... 738&row=40
http://www.mykitlog.com/users/display_l ... 919&row=36
http://www.mykitlog.com/users/display_l ... 737&row=41

However, different people have different issues, my issue was that the cowl was slightly short on the top, I had to extend the fibreglass a little.

Mike Smith had a similar issue to yours I believe, have a look at his site as well.

[gammaxy]

Dana,

From your second and third pictures, it looks like the top of the cowl is overlapping the corner of the windshield. I don't think you'll be able to get the top to lay down as long as it is overlapping the windshield.

The aluminum strap at the front of my windshield was interfering with the top corners of my cowl and I had to trim/grind the ends of the aluminum strap a bit (I know for sure mine weren't quite to plans, so this might be a problem unique to me).

Edit:
Compare your windshield strap viewtopic.php?f=39&p=11921#p11888 with mine:

[Gripdana]

I went back and worked on the cowl a bit. I found that the relief cut I did worked out after all. The top of the cowl was very high. After taking off the hinge and trimming a little more the top laid right down. I did trim some of the aluminum from the firewall because it was binding. The only thing I can't get flush is the bottom. I did try the left side and the top seems to be a little better fit than the right. I think the right half was out side during shipping and sitting for a year it may have gotten deformed. Here are some photos of my last session. I think I can trim the over hang on the bottom to make it look better. Also got the hinge half back on and the top and bottom center line marked. The cowl is off for now tomorrow I will trim the center line add the top southcos and move on with the left. I will go back and glass the cut and old holes later. This has been a long day (about 11 hours on the right side today) I don't really want to do the top/bottom split mod. Thanks for all the help.

[Bryan Cotton]

It might be trick photography, but it looks great from here!

[gammaxy]

This picture makes it look like you still have a lot of trimming that can be done. Without being able to see your cowl for myself, I would expect easily another 1/4-1/2" can come off. The bottom edge shown in this picture (the one parallel to your fuselage bottom) ended up aligned pretty flush with the bottom of my fuselage. This picture makes it look like you have a gap and fitting the piano hinge is going to be difficult.

I occasionally removed the alignment spacer from my prop hub to make sure when the cowl is free-hanging I still had the correct clearance. Is there any chance your prop hub is compressing the cowl slighly, making it seem like you can't trim more material?