3-24-2020

After the plug was glued together, I cut the plug in half using a horizontal orientation then cut out the center section. This was followed by carefully sanding the ID until it fit snugly over the propeller shaft and the two halfs would nest together.

My next step was to locate the nose bowl onto the plug, align it so the split was horizontal, then clamp it to the plug. I spent a few minutes playing with the clamps while trying to get the nose plug exactly horizontal until I remembered it was CLAMPED to the spinner... I just needed to move the prop and it was easy to set in the correct position. During final clamping, I made sure the split section of the nose bowl was exactly horizontal and the front face of the nose bowl was flush to the plug.

Next I marked the center line of the top piece of engine cowling and also the center line of the nose bowl on the flange with the cowling will mate to the nose bowl. I placed the top piece of the engine cowling in place and clamped the front two corners to the nose bowl, then marked and trimmed the aft section. This is an initial trim, not quite to final size. I will also need to trim the forward edge of the top section to fit in the nose bowl flange.

To locate the cowling, I verified the nose bowl was clamped tight and still horizontal, then drilled the centermost hole along the firewall side, followed by the centermost hole at the nose bowl.

I decided to permanently mount the upper section of the nose bowl to the top cowling and the bottom section of the nose bowl to the lower cowling. My reasoning is when I want to access the engine, I want full access without having to trouble myself with a nose bowl haning in the way.