Bottom cowl - one piece or two?

[Battson]

Hi everyone,

I have decided to replace my bottom cowl. There are some nasty dents in it, and I thought about filling them, but I would not be happy with the finish.

Upon disassembly, I realised I could cut the whole piece from a single sheet of aluminium. So, is there any reason why I shouldn't do this?

Of course the kit comes with two pieces, which you rivet together along the bottom seam. I wondered what (if any) advantages there are two having a line of rivets joining two pieces, as compared to having a single piece cowl?

[whee]

I've thought a lot about this too and have decided to make my lower cowl one piece. I don't see why it won't work.

[jaredyates]

It would be more difficult to wrangle during installation, but if you are able to use your old one to duplicate the new one, that will help.
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[Collin Campbell]

I didn't realize that the kits were shipped with 2 pc lower cowls. My LSA kit was shipped one piece...smaller pc of metal perhaps? In scratch building the 4-place and the Patrol I made the lower cowl in one peice. Of course by the time you cut out that big opening for the carb scoop and the cooling outlet there's not much left in the center joining the two halves together. Without the traditional carb scoop I think it would look a lot nicer without the rivet seam in the middle...just my thoughts

[Battson]

I think most of the strength of the bottom cowl is derived from it's shape.
I thought about adding stiffeners to replicate the join-seam, but I don't think it would be worthwhile.