REFLECTOR: Cowl slot

Chuck c.harbert at comcast.net
Fri Jun 29 10:43:09 CDT 2007


John, you probably already know this, but just for others who wish to do 
this, here's how I did it. I have cowl slots on my plane and it works great 
together with the piano wire attach rods on the wing root. The cowls can be 
removed in less than a minute.

The cowl slot was pretty easy to build. All we did was do the normal cut 
along the dotted line (you'll need to leave a few small areas uncut for 
support which you cut afterwards), and just duct tape the firewall side of 
the cut before you install the 2-3" wide double layer of heavy bid that is 
on the inside of the cowl. After you cut it and pop it off, you trim it down 
to about 3/4" extending out to from the cowl piece. Next you put a double 
layer of duct tape the 3/4" extension and put a double layer of bid on the 
firewall side to capture the 3/4" extension.

Be careful to put on enough duct tape to make sure you don't epoxy the to 
pieces together because it's a job to get them apart if you do. Also, I 
didn't make the slot the full 360 degrees because it won't come off unless 
you leave about 6-8" on each side from the centerline on the firewall side. 
The 3/4" cowl flange goes all the way around to seal out water. Don't be 
surprise that you have to sand the flange down to get it to slide easily 
into the slot. The cowls need to tip up slightly to come off. You may also 
need to make a prop blade cutout on the bottom flange to tip it into the 
slot. You should end up with a very tight line between the cowl and 
fuselage.

I think I sent some pics before, but I'll see if I can find some and resend 
them.  I think other people have done this to their V's, so they might have 
better instructions. I did mine 10 yrs ago and don't remember everything 
that well. Good luck.

Chuck H

> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>

> From: John Dibble <aminetech at bluefrog.com>

>
> I'm also interested.  I'm planning on doing the same.  I prefer not to 
> have to redo the firewall, so my plan is just to add a 2" fiberglass strip 
> which will adhere 3/4" on the existing flange, leaving 3/4" for the cowl 
> (I'll need to trim 1/4" off the cowl) and 1/2" extending beyond the flange 
> to act as a guide when fitting the cowl.
>
> John

> 



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