Week 240 - Cowling Part 15

Hours to date: 2364.25

Edging ever closer to finishing the cowl. 

I put a coat of primer on thinking I had it looking quite smooth with the filler but sure enough all it did was show me just how much more work I had to do!

Oh well it will soon be done, just got to stick at it and make it all tickity boo now and ready for paint.

One job that did go well for me was sorting out the fasteners at the top rear of the cowl. These go inside the fuselage and as it is honeycomb then this was much too thick and the wrong material to rivet the sprung back plate to. 

So I Dremeled out a little section back to the outside layer of glass and bonded in 3 layers of carbon to make it strong enough for riveting. Working in a very confined space here and had to use a mirror for one of them. Anyway it all worked out - see pics below for how I did it. A useful technique which I would recommend to anyone who wants to go for this type of fastener in a sandwich honeycomb construction.

The oil door is proving to be much more tricky to sort out than I initially thought.

It's all down to the hinge which is a hidden type. You can buy them for $40 US but I thought I can just make one. Well, not sure if I got the shape wrong or what but it does not work for me - at least not yet anyway - I will keep trying but I think it may be to do with the position of the hinge.

Hopefully by next week I can post about something other than the cowl! (I appreciate your patience dear readers).

Just showing how close the cowl fits together and how flush it is with these fasteners. I am still working on the spinner to cowl gap - stay tuned for an update on that next week.

Oil door with Camloc fastener in place.

View from the inside. I had to 'shape' the Camloc to fit the curved door.

You can see how much work needed to be done to the cowls due to my shitty layup technique. I think they would still need filler anyway as the fabric weave was showing through in many places.

Inside view of the carbon layup for the sprung cowl fasteners. I wrapped a fastener in packing tape and waxed the screw so it held the carbon in place while it bonded but did not stick to the layup. Worked a treat.

View from the outside with the waxed screw holding it in place while it bonds.

Second attempt at a hidden hinge - still not working so will have to try again! Door is catching on the top of the cowl when opening so I think I will have to move the position of the hinge.

Cowl fastener riveted in place.

After a coat of primer this was the filler needed to fix all the errors - haven't even started on the top half yet! Fun and games...