Cowl mods

[Kurt.A]

I am in the process of refinishing the cowl parts on my project. All 4 pieces of the cowl are joined together and attached to the airframe with 1/4 turn fasteners. My thoughts are to glass the 2 top pieces together as well as the 2 bottom pieces. This would allow me to remove a small amount of glass as well as a few fasteners. Thereby reducing a few more ounces from the total weight. Any thoughts on why I should or shouldn't do this?

[JimS]

On my model IV I regularly drop the bottom cowl with the two pieces attached. As far as the top, I usually remove the front piece first as it would only be suported by one camlock if I did them together.
If you are thinking you could get rid of some fiberglass by getting rid of the flange that the front two pieces attach to, you would lose a lot of rigidity and I would think when you remove the cowl it would behave like a wet noodle.
I like that it's easy to pop the front top piece off. Yesterday I had to adjust my idle stops and easily did it by doing just that.

If you go ahead with it, post pictures !

JimS