Oct 30, 2023     Nose bowl is all primed - (1.5 hours) Category: Engine Cowl

Took a ton of time, but the nose bowl is finally ready for phase 1

  Oct 29, 2023     Fill, sand, prime and repeat - (5 hours)       Category: Engine Cowl

It was like Groundhog Day only in hours. I am on my 7th time. Looks like bottom cowl is now at an acceptable level to get it through Phase 1, which after Phase 1 I will paint the engine cowl.

  Oct 29, 2023     Upsized holes for #6, #8 screws and #4 Rivets - (4 hours)       Category: Engine Cowl

Final upsizing to finished the engine cowl connections

  Oct 28, 2023     More nose Bowl sanding - (5 hours)       Category: Engine Cowl

I was sanding with 400 grit sandpaper prepping for primer and held the nose bowl up to the light and saw more pinholes…. So it was back to filling and sanding again. After sanding all the filler off I found one more area, filled and sanded that then primed. The primed nose bowl will need a bit of sanding then a final coat of priming

  Oct 27, 2023     Installation of Sky Bolt fasteners - (2 hours)       Category: Engine Cowl

Installed in the 2 “U”Channels and the nose bowl

  Aug 03, 2023     Nose Bowl Sanding is finished - (6 hours)       Category: Engine Cowl

I don't want to do that again!!! But it turned out great. Thousands of pinholes filled and sanded super smooth

  Aug 02, 2023     More Nose Bowl sanding - (9 hours) Category: Engine Cowl

Perfection is the enemy of completion

Sanded the nose bowl for 9 hours

  Aug 01, 2023     Sanding Nose Bowl - (5.5 hours)       Category: Engine Cowl

This is what 5 1/2 hours of sanding looks like after yesterday's application of the pinhole filler. The blue spots are superfill in a few areas that needed filling

  Jul 31, 2023     Sanding the Nose Bowl - (6 hours)       Category: Engine Cowl

Sanding and filling, rinse and repeat. Had to fill at least 4 times to get it to my satisfaction. Of course you sand in between each filling. Then I painted on pinhole filler as all fiberglass has pinholes. It was a long and dirty day

  Jul 31, 2023     Air Box Fiberglass - (1.5 hours)       Category: Engine Cowl

Layed up fiberglass from the front top of the airflow system. This had to be fiberglass as the engine cowl is rounded and the top of the airflow box.

  Jun 26, 2023     Finished the Low Pressure lip and.. - (7 hours)       Category: Engine Cowl

I finished the low pressure lip and it looks amazing. It is primed and cleco'd in. I also final sanded the air scoop lower frame and it is now ready for pin hole priming

  Jun 25, 2023     Air Scoop Frame - (1.5 hours) Category: Engine Cowl

Final fit of the lower frame that fits on the bottom of the air scoop. There was a bit of trimming and sanding to get the top of the frame to fit up against the scoop

  Jun 25, 2023     Low Pressure Lip 2 - (2 hours)       Category: Engine Cowl

Final sanded and then applied paint on pin hole filler

I also drilled and cleco'ed in place for the final fitting prior to applying the pin hole filler

  Jun 24, 2023     Lower Air Scoop cover - (1 hour) Category: Engine Cowl

Looks like it is finally sanded to an acceptable smoothness

  Jun 24, 2023     Lower Lip Continued - (3 hours) Category: Engine Cowl

Still sanding and filling to get the look just right. Slow process

  Jun 23, 2023     Sanding low Pressure lip - (1.5 hours)       Category: Engine Cowl

Used a belt sander to get the low pressure lip smoothed out. Then filled in the low spots with more SuperFill

  Jun 22, 2023     Air scoop frame - (3 hours)       Category: Engine Cowl

Lots of sanding after filling in depressions and imperfections with SuperFill. Of course then there were more to fill, so lots more sanding tomrrow

  Jun 22, 2023     Low Pressure Lip - (2 hours)       Category: Engine Cowl

Popped the low pressure lip out of the mold, measured and cut it to my desired sizing, then of course I added a BUNCH of SuperFill just because I love sanding. For the record, I hate sanding. But SuperFill and sanding will allow for the best/smoothest end result

  Jun 21, 2023     Low Pressure Lip fabrication - (8 hours)       Category: Engine Cowl

First I had to create a mold to put on the bottom of the cowl to allow for the glassing. The mold too 5 hours alone as it had many complex curves that joined in the two corners. Then the mold was mounted via packing tape to the cowl and then glassed with 5 layers of fiberglass

  Jun 18, 2023     SkyBolt installation - (3 hours)       Category: Engine Cowl

All holes drilled and cleaned up for both the receptacles and fasteners on the cowl doors

  Jun 15, 2023     Riveting the piano hinges to the top cowl - (3 hours)       Category: Engine Cowl

Riveted the top cowl to the piano hinges and the cowl doors to the piano hinges. �wn the middle is a line of rivets that is a “U” channel stiffener for the top cowl.

I did screw up in a big way…. I had the top cowl all perfectly flush riveted to the piano hinges and then ding… ding… ding I realized I forgot to attach the “U” channel to the bottom of the piano hinge. � I had to drill out the rivets and redo the riveting. �uff happens

  Jun 13, 2023     Air Scoop re-engineering - (2.5 hours)       Category: Engine Cowl

I mentally engineered this while I was away working as I felt the fiberglass one I built was too heavy.

  May 12, 2023     Trimmed and installed carb airscoop - (3.5 hours)       Category: Engine Cowl

Lots of measuring and marking as I had to make sure this was cut properly. The factory made part comes too long and is trimmed to length based on your engine setup. Once cut to length, I drilled holes in the scoop then transfer drilled to the cowl and cleco'd in

  May 11, 2023     Bottom Cowl cut out for exhaust - (2 hours)       Category: Engine Cowl

Cur out the relief for the exhaust and started on a template for the cowl lip

  May 11, 2023     AirBox - (9 hours)       Category: Engine Cowl

Been working on the Companion since I got home from work Monday. �Mainly working on the bottom cowl and the carb airbox with a few other goodies thrown in.

It was with much trepidation that I started cutting into the bottom cowl that took so long to get perfect, but it needed a big hole so it got a big hole. �viously it is a start small and enlarge as needed. �arted by tracing the carb for positioning, then took the cowl off set the airbox on it and then started tracing the outline once again starting a bit small allowing for cutting more to fit.

With the airbox on, I can now install the Carb Heat control cable, so I did that as well.

  Apr 12, 2023     Finished the bottom cowl, and completed the cowl doors - (7 hours)       Category: Engine Cowl

Today was a great day, very visual as I continued yesterday's engine cowl work

This is a cool trick a fellow builder showed me, use 2-3” tape using the “inner edge” where you want to final trim your cowl. The install the cowl use more tape and line up the outside edges of the tape and the inside edge will be EXACTLY where you want to trim to. Very simple and effective

Then just trim, in the photo it would be a case of trimming the right edge

So I finished the left bottom cowl today and drilled and cleco'd it to the U Channel

Next was the cowl doors. I held the doors up while lining up the front leading edge to the top cowl and marked the piano hinge on the door both front and back. The I removed the hinge from the top cowl and sandwiched the door between the side hinges and clamped it to the work table. The point of this is to have perfectly matched attach holes on the top and door. Using the top holes to drill through the door skin and other side of the piano hinge

Next was to figure out how to match drill the holes for the bottom cowl, U channel and the door skin. The 5 holes drilled will be where the SkyBolt fastener attaches the door to the U Channel and bottom cowl. I used a flush pull rivet on holes 1, 3 and 5, then strap/match drilled holes 2 and 4, then drilled out the 3 rivets and cleco'd in the door on holes 2 and 4 then match drilled hole 3, 5 and 1

The green tape is where I need to make minor trims to make it perfect, then I will sand the edges to take and sharp spot off and finally roll the edges

Repeat for the other side and boom you have doors

Full photo to show where things are to date

  Apr 12, 2023     From sheet metal to bottom cowl - (8 hours)       Category: Engine Cowl

It was a day of measuring, cutting, fitting, measuring, deep breaths, more cutting and fitting and then some drilling. Go slow, you can always take more off, but you can't add on

  Apr 04, 2023     Finished the top cowl with the piano hinges installed - (6.5 hours)       Category: Engine Cowl

Engine cowl is fitted and cleco'ed to both the nose bowl and the boot cowl/fuselage. Piano hinges are sandwiched between the “U” channel and skin.

I also got started on the bottom cowl, the top attach point (U Channel) installed and they are 0.5�o and 0.4�evel to the reference point which is the top of the door frame

  Apr 03, 2023     Top Section cut and cleco'ed to the nose bowl - (5 hours)       Category: Engine Cowl

There was a lot of measuring prior to cutting. Initially I cut it slightly oversized to get a better idea of the fit, then cut it down to the desired size

I drilled the holes in the front edge of the top then match drilled and cleco'ed into the nose bowl.

  Mar 31, 2023     Finished the nose bowl backing - (7 hours)       Category: Engine Cowl

Lots of poster board templates as the edges of the nose bowl don't allow for straight lines. Really happy how this will allow for extremely sturdy/rugged attach hardware

  Mar 31, 2023     Upper Nose Bowl - (1 hour)       Category: Engine Cowl

Installed a metal strip to reinforce the fiberglass nose bowl for attachment purposes