Continued working on fitting the cowl:

1. Final-leveled the airplane.
2. Set up a laser level and aligned it to the previously-made marks on the right-front of the cowl. Ran 1" blue tape along the laser line.
3. Did the same thing on the left side of the cowl.
4. Removed the top cowl. Taped Skybolt cleco adapters into the nine installed Skybolt tabs.
5. Shone a light under each adapter, then marked, drilled and clecoed each one up to #30.
6. Began trimming the front 8" of the side flange on the lower cowl, to facilitate putting the cowl halves together.
7. Based on this trim, I attempted to fit the halves together, then began a repetitive process of trimming the upper and lower cowl in order to get a better fit at the front. My goal is to get the prop spinner flat to approximately a 13" diameter. I am leaving the sides of the lower cowl long intentionally, so it can be trimmed to match the top one later. After a couple of hours with a Dremel drum sander and a long sanding block, the fit is getting better, but there's still a bit of work left.