Cowl fitting help

[dcsfoto]

7SS started fitting the cowl, need to hear all the tips and secrets
on fitting the cowl

the fit at the front end seems poor

how close is the trim line on the cowl top?

please help

Thanks

David Kelm

[AirFox]

http://www.teamkitfox.com/Forums/album.php?albumid=330&pictureid=4092

Here is a picture from my album that may help. I had a flange made for the Rotax that Helped with the process. 11.2" in diameter, 1" out from the prop flange.

Good Luck.

[Esser]

All my pictures disappeared. This week I am hoping to start updating them but if you click on them, you should be able to see the picture being referred to.

http://www.teamkitfox.com/Forums/showthread.php?t=3814&page=28

Even if you don't look at the pictures, you can see the tips and hints that everyone kicked in along the way.

My biggest tips are:

Cut with a 6" angle grinder if you have one. It sounds over kill but I find it is the easiest way to get straight lines.

Clean up the hole around the prop first. You can adjust it later but I find cleaning up that hole makes it easier to see where things are out and where they can be adjusted.

Get a saw horse under your bottom cowl and shim it so it is almost the perfect height for supporting the cowl when you take it on and off.

Use tape or better yet, ratchet straps for holding the bottom cowl exactly where you want it when you want to drill your holes. If it is sitting too low, a pull or two on the ratchet can give you pretty fine adjustment.

If you have everything done and you aren't happy with how the cowl is sitting, adjust and redrill with bigger clecos. The holes are going to be enlarged for camlocs anyway so you can cover up some booboos.

For fitting, I like taking straight edges and using a sharpie, blacking out the slight areas I want to remove. I then grind off the "black spots" Be prepared to take the top cowl on and off about 50 times to get it right.

At the very end, you wont get everything perfect. Get it 95% perfect and fix the misaligns on the nose with superfil.


This is the stuff that worked for me, your milage may vary.

[jiott]

Take it slow and easy. Far better to remove too little and take more off later than to take off too much right away. That fit at the front is not easy, and you have to progressively work your way into it. Be aware that the trim line across the front is not a straight line-the inner trim line is higher than the outer trim line. I found that those two inner tabs that stick up from the lower cowl had to be made somewhat thinner to allow some bending to fit behind the upper cowl. I also found that when you had trimmed off enough so that the two upper and lower halves of the air inlets on either side of the prop hole fit nicely together, then everything else seemed to come together fairly easily. SuperFill does the rest as Josh said.

[Brandon Petersen]

Hi David! Working on cowl...must mean the boot cowl showed up? How does it look?
Brandon

[Tom Waid]

This is how I fitted the cowl.

Go here! (http://tropicaltuba.com/Kitfox%20Project/Kitfox15.htm#Fitting the Cowling)

And here! (http://tropicaltuba.com/Kitfox%20Project/Kitfox16.htm#Fairing the Cowl)

And here! (http://tropicaltuba.com/Kitfox%20Project/Kitfox16.htm#Fairing the Cowl, Part 2)

Scroll through the pages. There are more photos of fairing the cowl.

Be aware that I'm not representing my way as the best way. I'm just showing how I did it

Good luck!

[colospace]

Yes, I looked over Tom's build photos when doing my nose bowl trimming. That helped a lot with visualizing how the final trim lines should look. (Thanks Tom, I have found your build documentation extremely helpful during my build.)

[Tom Waid]

Yes, I looked over Tom's build photos when doing my nose bowl trimming. That helped a lot with visualizing how the final trim lines should look. (Thanks Tom, I have found your build documentation extremely helpful during my build.)

You're welcome!

[dcsfoto]

thanks to all

boot cowl #2 was a much better than the first

I am looking to use piano hinge on the sides

any comments good or bad ?

David Kelm

[t j]

Here's a short video with some tips on using piano hinge on the cowl.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9ILDKgKbbM&feature=youtu.be

[Esser]

I thought about it and realized the $15 each cam locks that were sent with the kit were more than adequate, easy to install, and looked very nice.

[dcsfoto]

I like the clean look.

David Kelm

[efwd]

Thanks Tom
I will be referring to your pics here in the near future. Need to cover the last wing first. Boot cowl is on.
Eddie

[jrevens]

I like the clean look.

David Kelm

It's a nice way to go, and you'll never have to worry about any scalloping between fasteners. Lowell (Highwing) used piano hinge, I believe.