Joshua's RV-9A Project

Spent most of the day today doing cowling-related things.  This weekend might see the transition from shaping work to finishing work (finally). Started with more sanding of stuff that had been applied previously: the nose ring and outboard corners.  They’re looking decent; one more layer of micro applied to fill holes and divots.  As long as I was mixing up micro, I put some along the side hinge lines to smooth those transitions, as well as around the oil door, after wrapping it in tape.  Later, after the micro had hardened but not fully cured, I was able to shave off the excess and pop the oil door out.

Also dealt with the side hinge pins: bent a 90* angle in the front, and another bend to allow the pin to come out from the slot.  Wrapped it around a #8 screw to make a ring to secure it.  Seems to have come out OK, and it’s in the spirit of the Van’s hinge eyelet, but a little more elegant.  Not nearly as pretty as the recessed coverplates, etc that are often showcased, but it’ll fly…I can make a fancy coverplate and fill the screw hole before paint, if I want.  Riveted a nutplate to each side of the cowl with an aluminum backing plate for reinforcement.

A similar thing was done to the inner side of the air intakes where the cowls overlap — drilled for #8 screw, installed nutplates with an aluminum doubler.  Upper cowl countersunk for tinnerman washers.

Perhaps against my better judgement, decided to bite the bullet and add a “ramp” of micro to the top skin ahead of the canopy, to cover up the “air scoops” on the canopy to fwd skin joint.  That means I’ll have to spray primer on this, because it’s pretty ugly now with the sanded skin and white micro filler.

Also printed & installed placards for tank capacity at the fuel selector, and installed the dataplate which has come back from the engravers along with the fuel caps.