Kit #7 arrived

[Utah-Jay]

Cleco’ed in the removable glare shield, need to drill some holes to attach to the other pieces
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Placed the CF NACA ducts in the boot cowl cut out and got the correct angle for the hose attachement, then had to drill out the hole and get the hose attachment to fitted inside the “duct”. It took a long time, but as you can see it is a really nice fit and will be super tough.
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[Utah-Jay]

The removable center section of the glare shield is finished. I was anything but simple and quick, but the use of doublers and nut plates will make for a very smooth and seamless glare shield under whatever covering eventually goes over the top of the metal.
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With this laborious endeavor completed, I started on the reinforcement of the nose bowl where the top engine cowl will attach to the fiberglass. Tomorrow I will do the same to the bottom nose bowl and the sides of the upper nose bowl.
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[Utah-Jay]

Long but very rewarding process getting all the nose bowl backing done. Obviously they are not straight lines, so there was a lot is poster board and templates used. But it is complete.
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[Utah-Jay]

And, check out this rolling tool tray. It is really a huge help to just roll all your stuff around with you
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[Utah-Jay]

I really dislike redoing things, but a part of my boot cowl had been bothering me and being I am starting to work on the engine cowl I decided to redo the top front part of the boot cowl.
Yep, it was time to use some poster board to add a bit to the previous piece as rather than being overlapped by the side cowl, this new piece is going to overlap for a cleaner and smoother transition
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This photo shows a very smooth transition
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And on to the engine cowl
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[Utah-Jay]

And I just updated my EAA builders log, crossed 900 hours today

[Utah-Jay]

Engine cowl is fitted and cleco'ed to both the nose bowl and the boot cowl/fuselage. Piano hinges are sandwiched between the “U” channel and skin. IMG_3927.jpg
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I also got started on the bottom cowl, the top attach point (U Channel) installed and they are 0.5° and 0.4° level to the reference point which is the top of the door frame

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[Utah-Jay]

Started with this, well actually a big uncut sheet
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And through a lot of fitting, measuring, more fitting and some deep breaths before more cutting and then drilling and cleco’ing, I ended up with this at the end of the day.
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[Utah-Jay]

Today was a great day, very visual as I continued yesterday’s engine cowl work

This is a cool trick a fellow builder showed me, use 2-3” tape using the “inner edge” where you want to final trim your cowl. The install the cowl use more tape and line up the outside edges of the tape and the inside edge will be EXACTLY where you want to trim to. Very simple and effective
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Then just trip, in the photo above it would be a case of trimming the right edge

So I finished the left bottom cowl today and drilled and cleco’d it to the U Channel

Next was the cowl doors. I held the doors up while lining up the front leading edge to the top cowl and marked the piano hinge on the door both front and back. The I removed the hinge from the top cowl and sandwiched the door between the side hinges and clamped it to the work table. The point of this is to have perfectly matched attach holes on the top and door. Using the top holes to drill through the door skin and other side of the piano hinge
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Next was to figure out how to match drill the holes for the bottom cowl, U channel and the door skin. The 5 holes drilled will be where the SkyBolt fastener attaches the door to the U Channel and bottom cowl. I used a flush pull rivet on holes 1, 3 and 5, then strap/match drilled holes 2 and 4, then drilled out the 3 rivets and cleco’d in the door on holes 2 and 4 then match drilled hole 3, 5 and 1
IMG_3993.jpgIMG_3997.jpgIMG_4001.jpgIMG_3994.jpgIMG_3998.jpg The above green tape is where I need to make minor trims to make it perfect, then I will sand the edges to take and sharp spot off and finally roll the edges

Repeat for the other side and boom you have doors

Full photo to show where things are to date
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[Utah-Jay]

Ailerons made the trip home, and yes they do fit in the Mini
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[rrbeck11]

Really nice work, Jay! Now I’m dying to see what you have planned for the underside of that cowl!

[Utah-Jay]

rrbeck11
my carb air box arrives today, should get interesting

[Utah-Jay]

As often happens I mentally review the days work that night, and last night I decided to redo my cowl doors. Yes they were perfect, fitted really tight… But I just decided that the skin was just a bit short and would not have enough material below the skybolt fastener.

So today I redid them both. And like most things, they turned out better the 2nd time.

Win-Win
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And the fit of the nose bowl to the spinner is perfect
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[Nev]

Good work Jay !

[Utah-Jay]

Been working on the Companion since I got home from work Monday.
Mainly working on the bottom cowl and the carb airbox with a few other goodies thrown in.

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It was with much trepidation that I started cutting into the bottom cowl that took so long to get perfect, but it needed a big hole so it got a big hole. Obviously it is a start small and enlarge as needed. Started by tracing the carb for positioning, then took the cowl off set the airbox on it and then started tracing the outline once again starting a bit small allowing for cutting more to fit.

I also filled the aileron counterbalance tubes with #9 shot, I got them to within 0.2 oz of one another, I think that is good enough. Mine came out a bit heavy, I think using larger shot would make for a lighter weight. 5 pounds 8.5 ounces was my weight. I countersunk the holes for the rivets and primed where the bare metal was exposed
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With the airbox on, I can now install the Carb Heat control cable, so I did that as well.

[Bcone1381]

It looks like in a previous post you might have a Vetterman Cross Over exhaust....meaning there are two cross over exhaust tubes placed in front of the oil pan. I was wondering how this Carb heat Box would fit with those. Am I correct about your fit and your exhaust?