Today I cleaned up the excess filler by using a small chisel to gently scrape it away.
With that done I was able to fit both pieces of the cowling in position and confirm everything lined up as expected. It looks good!
Cowl Fitting
Bottom Cowl Hinges
Today I riveted on the bottom cowl hinges. The boe-lube worked well as a release agent, and the clecos came out easily. With the hinges glued in place, I cleaned out the excess resin by running a drill through each hole. Before glueing I inserted the hinge pins, just to help avoid any deformation, and I left them in while riveting.
Progress was swift, and I had the hinges done within half an hour. I went to test fit the cowl, but found I couldn’t get the aft edge hinges to line up with the firewall-mounted hinges. Pushing the cowling back caused the cowling to bend outboard instead of seating into position. I took the cowling off, and realized that I had some excess glue between the hinge eyelets on the left hinge. This happened because I used filler to build up a bed of glue behind the hinge where it interferes with the foam section. I’ll try to clean it up tomorrow somehow.
Bottom Cowl Hinges
After clearing the excess resin, I started riveting the hinges on the bottom cowl. Immediately I realized I needed to first glue the hinges on, not just rivet these. On the aft edges, the interference between the hinge flange and the honeycomb meant that riveting the hinge could cause the rivets to tip, and leave a cavity between hinge flange and cowling. I mixed up some resin and glued all of the hinges into place. As a release agent, I used some Boe-lube on the ends of the clecos holding the hinges.
Riveted Top Cowl Hinges
Tonight I riveted the top cowling hinges on. I first cleared excess resin from the holes by running the drill through the holes. Then I clecoed and riveted the hinges on.
One thing I didn’t do on the top cowl was glue the hinges before riveting. The plans didn’t call for using any epoxy, and I decided it wasn’t really necessary.
It didn’t take too long to knock out the riveting. Once done, I mixed up more resin and coated the inside of the bottom cowl.
Cowling Work
Today I coated the interior of the top cowling with a layer of resin. This helps seal the cowling and makes cleaning oil and grime easier. I mixed up the resin and brushed it on.
Garmin Roll Servo
Tonight I switched out the Dynon roll servo and replaced it with a Garmin unit. Originally I had thought I would install a Dynon panel and system, but decided to switch to Garmin. Replacing the roll servo was a job that had been on the to-do list for a long time.
Aside from a couple of different bits of hardware, the units use the same parts. It was fairly easy to do, after finding the right way to get tools on nuts and bolts in the confined space.
Smoke system
Tonight I ran the wiring for the smoke system. I’m not planning to install it until after the aircraft is flying, but I’m installing the wiring now.
From the panel, the pump power wire runs down the center channel and exits at the flap motor. I’ve coiled and secured the wiring inside the flap motor housing for now.
The relay is mounted behind the panel.
Spinner
Today we trimmed the cutouts on the spinner. These allow the spinner to pass over the prop blades, and allow some space for the constant-speed prop blades to rotate.
Cowl Hinge Fitting
Today we finished the fitting of the top and bottom cowls, and located and drilled the hinges on both the top and bottom cowls.
The only real issue we ran into was on the bottom cowl. On the left side of the cowling the honeycomb material was too far aft, and caused interference with the hinge. We carefully bent the hinge to conform to the shape, and will use some epoxy filler to fill any void between the hinge and the cowling.
Fuselage Wiring
Today I worked on tidying up the wiring runs from the aft of the fuselage to the cockpit. I started by zip tying the antenna cables, and the baggage light, and inserting the C1036 and C1037 wires. I went back later and added some wrap-around cable protection in the areas where the wiring could run on rivet ship heads.
With the aft fuselage wrapped up, I worked on the wiring in the tunnel within the baggage compartment. Zip ties and spiral wrap were used liberally. Main concerns were ensuing nothing can contact the control rod, and protecting the wire bundles from chaffing on the lightening hole edges.
