{"id":859,"date":"2011-02-20T17:07:56","date_gmt":"2011-02-20T17:07:56","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2017-12-08T02:35:38","modified_gmt":"2017-12-08T02:35:38","slug":"started-fitting-lower-cowl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/jasonbeaver.com\/rv7\/2011\/02\/20\/started-fitting-lower-cowl\/","title":{"rendered":"Started Fitting Lower Cowl"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I finished adjusting the flange on the front to be perfectly round and then drilled a hole on each side to lock in the position.<\/p>\n<p><center><a href=\"http:\/\/www.jasonbeaver.com\/rv7\/rv7pictures\/Originals\/20110220\/IMG_9059.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/jasonbeaver.com\/rv7\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/IMG_9059.jpg\" \/><\/a><\/center><\/p>\n<p>The plans specify that you mark a line 2&#8243; aft of the firewall flange as a reference point for trimming. \u00a0As I&#8217;ve seen several other builders do, I used some 2&#8243; wide painters tape.<\/p>\n<p><center><a href=\"http:\/\/www.jasonbeaver.com\/rv7\/rv7pictures\/Originals\/20110220\/IMG_9060.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/jasonbeaver.com\/rv7\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/IMG_9060.jpg\" \/><\/a><\/center><\/p>\n<p>I laid a straightedge across the top cowl to see how the four flanges lined up. \u00a0Three were nicely in line&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><center><a href=\"http:\/\/www.jasonbeaver.com\/rv7\/rv7pictures\/Originals\/20110220\/IMG_9061.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/jasonbeaver.com\/rv7\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/IMG_9061.jpg\" \/><\/a><\/center><\/p>\n<p>However, one of the flanges sits about 1\/8&#8243; shy of the line.<\/p>\n<p><center><a href=\"http:\/\/www.jasonbeaver.com\/rv7\/rv7pictures\/Originals\/20110220\/IMG_9062.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/jasonbeaver.com\/rv7\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/IMG_9062.jpg\" \/><\/a><\/center><\/p>\n<p>After doing a bunch of research on cowl fitting, I decided to fit the bottom cowl first. \u00a0I started by making a paper template for the gear let cutouts.<\/p>\n<p><center><a href=\"http:\/\/www.jasonbeaver.com\/rv7\/rv7pictures\/Originals\/20110220\/IMG_9063.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/jasonbeaver.com\/rv7\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/IMG_9063.jpg\" \/><\/a><\/center><\/p>\n<p>I transferred this to the cowl and then cut it out with the angle grinder.<\/p>\n<p><center><a href=\"http:\/\/www.jasonbeaver.com\/rv7\/rv7pictures\/Originals\/20110220\/IMG_9064.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/jasonbeaver.com\/rv7\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/IMG_9064.jpg\" \/><\/a><\/center><\/p>\n<p>After loosely fitting the cowl halves, I just had to take a picture. \u00a0This is looking pretty damn sweet!<\/p>\n<p><center><a href=\"http:\/\/www.jasonbeaver.com\/rv7\/rv7pictures\/Originals\/20110220\/IMG_9066.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/jasonbeaver.com\/rv7\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/IMG_9066.jpg\" \/><\/a><\/center><\/p>\n<p>The flanges around the inlets needed a little trimming to get the joint tight. \u00a0This is pretty close.<\/p>\n<p><center><a href=\"http:\/\/www.jasonbeaver.com\/rv7\/rv7pictures\/Originals\/20110220\/IMG_9067.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/jasonbeaver.com\/rv7\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/IMG_9067.jpg\" \/><\/a><\/center><\/p>\n<p>After a little further trimming of the gear leg holes, the cowl halves fit together reasonably well. \u00a0There&#8217;s still a small gap down the side, but that should disappear after making the trims along the aft edges.<\/p>\n<p><center><a href=\"http:\/\/www.jasonbeaver.com\/rv7\/rv7pictures\/Originals\/20110220\/IMG_9068.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/jasonbeaver.com\/rv7\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/IMG_9068.jpg\" \/><\/a><\/center><\/p>\n<p>This is a problem though. \u00a0Even if the gap pulls tight, the joint along the right side isn&#8217;t remotely straight. \u00a0I can&#8217;t cut a straight line here because that would just make the gap even wider. \u00a0The instructions (as well as other builder&#8217;s websites) indicate that the sides should overlap during the trial fitting. \u00a0I&#8217;m starting to wonder if these pieces weren&#8217;t trimmed incorrectly at the factory.<\/p>\n<p><center><a href=\"http:\/\/www.jasonbeaver.com\/rv7\/rv7pictures\/Originals\/20110220\/IMG_9070.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/jasonbeaver.com\/rv7\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/IMG_9070.jpg\" \/><\/a><\/center><\/p>\n<p>The joint on the left side is pretty close to straight though. \u00a0I&#8217;m going to email Van&#8217;s tech support and see why these flanges aren&#8217;t overlapping and what they suggest I do about it.<\/p>\n<p><center><a href=\"http:\/\/www.jasonbeaver.com\/rv7\/rv7pictures\/Originals\/20110220\/IMG_9071.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/jasonbeaver.com\/rv7\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/IMG_9071.jpg\" \/><\/a><\/center><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I finished adjusting the flange on the front to be perfectly round and then drilled a hole on each side to lock in the position. The plans specify that you mark a line 2&#8243; aft of the firewall flange as a reference point for trimming. \u00a0As I&#8217;ve seen several other builders do, I used some &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/jasonbeaver.com\/rv7\/2011\/02\/20\/started-fitting-lower-cowl\/\" class=\"excerpt-link\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-859","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-firewall-forward"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/jasonbeaver.com\/rv7\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/859","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/jasonbeaver.com\/rv7\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/jasonbeaver.com\/rv7\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jasonbeaver.com\/rv7\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jasonbeaver.com\/rv7\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=859"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/jasonbeaver.com\/rv7\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/859\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3059,"href":"http:\/\/jasonbeaver.com\/rv7\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/859\/revisions\/3059"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/jasonbeaver.com\/rv7\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=859"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jasonbeaver.com\/rv7\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=859"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jasonbeaver.com\/rv7\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=859"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}