5-31-2021

Today I drilled the new holes holding the nose bowl together while making certain the prop flange was completely flat against my alignment jig. I then located the nose bowl assembly onto the engine and braced it in place with pieces of wood located between the flywheel and the nose bowl while I positioned the nose bowl assembly level horizontally.

After several checks to make sure the nose bowl was positioned properly, I placed the top engine cowl skin onto the engine and screwed it into the firewall while it rested on the nose bowl. I was please to find I had a lot of extra material that I'd added to the aft edge of the nose bowl as it is easy to cut away excess. Again, several checks to make sure everything was position correctly, then I drilled the upper cowl skin to the nose bowl. 

I proceeded to attach both lower cowl skin panels together then located them as I had done with the upper skin. In this case however, it was very plain to see the difference from the previous location of the skin to nose bowl attachment as there was a .5" to .75" difference.

My next step is to remove the cowling and trim back the excess flange material on the nose bowl, reassemble it all, then check the fit of the cowl doors. Once those are fitting correctly, I am ready to complete the final sanding/filling of the nose bowl and rivet it all together permanently.